SPECIE  HUH  BUG, 

•  OR  THE 

AUTOBIOGRAPHY  OF  FERRET  SNAPP  N£WCRAFT,E3Q. 

Being  a  full  exposition  and  exemplification  of  “ the  credit  system.1* 
Published  in  the  National  Laborer,  from  the  United  States  Magazine  and  Democratic 

Review. 


I  designedly  omit  the  place  of  my  birth,  that  which  my  father  wrought  on  the  credulity  of 
being  a  matter  of  some  doubt  to  myself,  inas-  these  egregious  blockheads,  that  sense  of  jus- 
much  as  from  my  earliest  recollection  I  led  a  tice  which  I  used  to  believe  innate  in  the  na- 
sort  of  miscellaneous  life,  seldom  remaining  ture  of  man,  would  rise  against  such  mischiev- 
long  in  the  same  place,  and  moving  about  as  ous  deceptions;  and  I  remember  I  once  ventur- 
occasion  made  necessary  or  convenient.  My  ed  to  express  myself  rather  ingenuously  on  the 
family,  though  poor,  was  of  great  antiquity,  subject.  His  reply  at  once  opened  my  mind 
and  withal  respectable,  since  I  have  often  to  that  new  and  sublime  theory  which  has 
heard  my  father  say,  not  one  of  his  ancestors  ever  since  been  the  governing  principle  of  my 
had  ever,  to  his  knowledge,  degraded  himself  life. 

by  following  any  regular  occupation.  The  on-  “My  son,”  said  he,  “what  do  you  suppose 
ly  tainted  limb  of  the  family  tree  was  our  constitutes  the  superiority  of  man  over  all  oth- 
grandfather,  who  was  ignominiously  bound  ap-  er  animals  V1 

prentice  to  a  cobbler  ;  but  thank  Heaven,  he  I  mustered  up  my  scholarship,  and  repli- 

ranaway  before  he  took  a  degree,  and  became  ed— - 

distinguished  as  all  our  race  have  been  by”liv-  “His  reason,  sir,” 

ing  by  their  wits”~an  expressive  phrase  which  “Good  you  are  right.  It  follows,  then,  that 
distinguishes  the  happy  few  from  the  misera-  reason  being  his  great  characteristic,  it  was 
ble  many,  who  are  justly  condemned  to  live  by  the  design  of  Providence,  that  he  should  live 
the  sweat  of  the  brow,  seeing  they  cannot  live  by  his  reason — in  other  words,  by  his  wits — 
by  the  sweat  of  the  brain.  The  consequence  and  that,  therefore,  it  is  his  bounden  duty  t© 
is,  that  the  latter  have  a  foolish  prejudice  against  make  the  most  of  them.  Do  you  understand?” 
the  former,  arising,  no  doubt,  from  an  innate  “I  think  I  do,  sir.  But  he  should  not  make 
sense  of  inferiority.  use  of  his  wits  to  deceive  others.  Justice — ” 

My  early  education  was  like  my  mode  of  “Justice  ?  Where  did  you  get  these  queer 
life,  rather  miscellaneous.  In  fact  setting  aside  notions,  boy  ?” 
a  little  smattering  of  reading,  writing,  and  cy-  “From  nature,  I  believe,  sir.” 
phering,  that  I  obtained,  at  various  times,  it  “Nature  is  a  son  of  a- — tinker  ! — and  the 
consisted  principally  in  the  example  and  pre-  sooner  we  turn  it  out  of  doors  the  better.  This 
cepts  of  my  father.  As  we  rambled  about  from  is  the  object  of  all  education.  The  impulses 
town  to  town — for  my  father  seldom  remained  of  nature  are  the  mere  errors  of  ignorance  and 
long  in  one  place,  on  account,  he  said,  of  the  inexperience, and  whatpnilosophers  caUa  know- 
envy  and  ill  will  he  excited  by  the  superiority  ledge  of  the  world — which,  by  the  way,  is 
of  his  wits — he  would  stop  and  call  my  atten-  worth  all  other  knowledge — consists  solely  in 
tion  to  a  fall  of  water, a  little  murmuring  river,  sharpening  our  wits,  and  preparing  us  to  take 
.  a  particular  point  of  land,  or  some  other  matter  advantage  of  the  dullness  of  others.  Scrupu- 
and  tell  me  what  a  capital  speculation  he  could  lous  blockheads  call  this  deception,  but  you 
make  out  of  it  if  he  only  had  the  money.  In  one  may  depend  upon  it,  it  is  nothing  but  a  justifia- 
place  he  would  ere^t  a  great  manufactory;  in  ble  use  of  our  wits.  Nay, it  is  not  only  justifiable, 
another,  make  the  river  navigable;  in  a  third,  but  obligatory;  for  not  to  make  use  of  the  fa- 
found  a  city ;  and  in  a  fourth,  cut  a  canal  that  culties  bestowed  on  us  by  nature,  or  acquired 
would  enrich  the  whole  country.  So  far  as  I  by  experience,  would  be  flying  in  the  face  of 
could  judge,  at  that  time,  his  sole  dependence  our  Maker,  It  would  be  a  most  criminal  nc- 
was  on  these  castles  in  the  air,  which  he  rea-  gligence.  Do  you  remember  the  parable  of  the 
lized,  except  in  the  way  of  now  and  then  per-  talents  ?” 

suading  some  poor  dolt  of  a  workingman,  who  “  I  think  I  have  some  sort  of  recollection  of 
.1  had  saved  a  little  money,  to  embark  it  in  some  it.” 

one  of  his  speculations,  which  I  confess  almost  “Well,  what  is  the  moral  of  it?  Is  it  not  that 
always  failed,  for  want,  as  my  father  said,  of  a  the  great  duty  of  man  is  to  turn  a  penny,  and 
proper  credit  system  founded  on  paper-money,  make  money  as  fast  as  he  can  ?” 

But  though  they  failed, my  father  always  man-  “But,  sir,  I  think  he  ought  to  make  it  honest- 
aged  to  take  care  of  hi  mselfv  which  he  affirmed  ly.” 

was  the  first  duty  of  man,  and  to  save  enough  “  Pooh — you're  a  blockhead.  There  is  not 
from  the  wreck  to  serve  him  till  he  could  hatch  one  word  about  honesty  in  the  whole  parable,** 
some  other  speculation.  This,  and  various  similar  conversations,  t®. 

When  I  grew  gjd  enough  to  think  a  little  for  gether  with  the  daily  example  of  my  father, 
myself,  and  observed  the  ingenious  devices  by  and  his  perpetual  turmoil  about  speculations, 

A 


2 


gave  a  radical  turn  to  my  mind,  and  fixed  my 
destiny  for  life.  I  saw  very  clearly  that  man¬ 
kind  were  condemned  to  labour,  not  for  their 
own  benefit,  but  that  of  others;  and  that  inas¬ 
much  as  the  wits  of  a  man  were  the  noblest 
part  of  him,  it  was  but  just  they  should  live  at 
the  expense  of  those  democratic  physical  pow- 
eis,  which  were  undoubtedly  intended  for  that 
special  purpose. 

One  of  the  great  resources  of  my  father,  who 
was  a  decided  enemy  to  hard  work,  was  the 
invention  of  labour-saving  machines.  I  re¬ 
member  to  have  heard  him  boast  that  he  had, 
during  his  life,  taken  out  patents  for  a  hundred 
and  thirty-seven  contrivances  of  this  sort,  ma¬ 
ny  of  which  he  sold  out  to  the  country  farmers 
and  village  mechanics,  for  he  had  a  most  slip¬ 
pery  tongue,  and  a  keen  wit,  which  he  often 
assured  me  were  specially  given  to  enable  him 
to  earn  an  honest  livelihood.  I  have  long  ago 
forgot  the  greater  portion  of  these  labor-saving 
machines;  but  I  remember  there  was  one  for 
scalding  pigs  without  heating  the  water,  and 
another  for  churning  butter  by  an  ingenious 
application  of  the  well-pole,  while  the  good  wo¬ 
men  were  lowering  and  hoisting  the  bucket. 
We  lived  comfortably  three  months  on  these 
inventions,  at  the  end  of  which  time  the  ignor¬ 
ant  country  people  began  to  be  so  jealous  of 
the  superiority  of  my  father’s  wit3,  that  they 
threatened  to  tnr  and  feather  him,  and  sub¬ 
ject  me  to  the  new  patent  scalding  machine. 

In  short,  the  country  was  becoming  rather 
warm  for  us,  and  my  father  determined  to 
seek  not  only  a  wider  sphere  of  action,  but  of 
impunity,  in  the  principal  city  of  that  section 
of  country  which  had  hitherto  been  the  scene 
of  the  triumphs  of  bis  wits. 

14  Ferret,  my  son,”  said  he,  one  day,  just  af¬ 
ter  a  great  ignorant  country  booby,  who  had 
paid  his  last  five  dollars  for  the  use  of  the  pa¬ 
tent  scalding  contrivance,  had  called  him  vari¬ 
ous  unseemly  names,  and  threatened  to  prose¬ 
cute  him  for  swindling — “Ferret,  my  son,  there 
is  no  longer  any  living  among  these  hard-work- 
ing  Cyclops,  who  have  no  respect  for  the  tri¬ 
umphs  of  superior  intellect,  and  prefer  brute 
force  to  mother  wit.  Besides,  these  ‘big- pa w- 
edjfellows’ — my  father  was  the  inventor  of  this 
phrase — have  such  a  stupid  respect  for  indus¬ 
try,  that  they  are  apt  to  despise  their  betters, 
who  live  by  their  wits, according  to  the  instinct 
of  reason,  and  the  decrees  of  Providence.  I 
am  going  to  the  great  city  of  Ragamuffinville, 
where  there  is  elbow-room  for  the  exercise  of 
one’s  wits,  and  I  can  turn  dollars  where  I  now 
only  turn  pennies.” 

Accordingly  we  departed  for  the  great  city 
o  seek  our  fortunes  in  a  more  enlarged  sphere 
of  action  As  we  proceeded  along,  my  father 
whiled  away  the  time  by  pointing  out  a  varie¬ 
ty  of  excellent  speculations.  I  had  but  a  con¬ 
fused  notion  of  the  precise  meaning  of  this 
word;  and  to  thia  day  I  confess  the  distinction 


between  making  a  great  speculation  and  ‘tak¬ 
ing  in’  a  fellow  creature,  is  not  precisely  clear 
to  my  mind.  How  far  a  man  may  use  his  su¬ 
perior  wit  or  experience  in  getting  the  better 
of  ignorance  and  simplicity,  is  a  question,  as 
my  father  used  to  say,  which  every  one  must 
decide  for  himself. 

“There,  now,”  said  he,  as  we  passed  the 
house  of  an  honest  farmer — “There  is  a  fellow 
who  might  double  the  value  of  his  farm,,  and 
live  like  a  fighting  cock,  if  he  would  only 
drain  that  great  swamp,  blow  up  that  ledge  of 
rocks,  sprinkle  a  few  hundred  bushels  of  plas^ 
ter  over  it,  lay  it  down  in  grass,  and  stock  it 
with  the  short  horn  breed.” 

I  replied  in  the  simplicity  of  my  heart — 

“I  suppose  sir,  he  his  not  the  means  of  doing 
this.” 

“Ah!  Ferret,  there’s  the  thing.  The  whole 
world  is,  as  it  were,  standing  still  for  want  of 
means.  There  is  not  half  enough  money  in  the 
world  to  supply  the  new  developementsof  specu¬ 
lation;  and  the  possibility  of  supplying  this  want 
so  to  keep  pace  with  the  spirit  of  the  age — do 
you  understand  me,  boy? — is  what  employs  my 
mind  day  and  night.  The  difficulty  of  getting  mo¬ 
ney  has  always  appeared  to  me  a  great  defect  in 
the  schemes  of  Providence,  and  were  that  onfy 
got  over,  man  would  be  all  but  omnipotent  1 
believe  this  to  be  possible,  and  have  a  sort  of  dim 
conception  working  its  way  in  my  brain,  which 
if  I  can  only  bring  it  to  maturity  will  produce  the 
greatest  rev  obit  ion  that  has  happened  in  the  world 
since  the  deluge,  and  relieve  mankind  from  that 
cruel  denunciation  that  he  should  earn  his  bread 
by  the  sweat  of  his  brow,  which  always  gives  me 
an  ague  whenever  1  hear  it  from  the  pulpit." 

I  requested  my  father  to  explain  his  project,  but 
he  only  replied, patting  his  forehead — “It  is  horer 
boy,  here,  but  can’t  explain  it  yet,  at  least  to-youp 
mind.  One  of  these  days  I  may  let  you  into  the 
secret — at  present  we  have  other  fish  to  fry-'r 
This  conversation  set  my  thoughts  in  motion.  I 
pondered  almost  without  intermission  on  tho  sub¬ 
ject,  which  gradually  opened  upon  me  as  I  ad¬ 
vanced,  step  by  step,  until  I  conceived  the  sub¬ 
lime  idea,  which,  as  will  appear  in  the  sequel,  I 
afterwards  carried  into  effect,  and  with  such  con¬ 
sequences  as  have  astonished  and  confounded  the 
world. 

Just  as  my  father  concluded  his  last  remark,we 
came  in  sight  of  a  little  tailor’s  shop,  i»  a  village 
by  the  road  side,  through  the  open  window  of 
which,  we  could  see  the  owner  stitching  away 
with  great  animation,  and  jerking  his  elbow  in  a 
most  spasmodic  style.  Observing  that  he  had 
some  business  with  the  tailor,  who,  as  it  soon  ap¬ 
peared,  w  as  a  simple  good-natured  soul,  of  great 
faith  and  little  experience,  my  father  told  me  to 
follow  him,  say  nothing,  ami  be  sure  not  to  laugh. 
Several  suits  of  clothes  were  hanging  out  of  doors 
as  a  lure  for  customers. 

My  lather  saluted  the  master  of  the  shop,  who 
stopped  his  elbow  for  an  instant,  raised  his  eyes, 
gave  him  a  nod,  and  then  w  ent  on  at  a  great  rate, 
as  if  he  wished  to  make  up  for  lost  time.  My  fa¬ 
ther  then  inquired  if  he  had  any  ready  made 
clothes  to  suit  himself  and  son^at  which  the  lit¬ 
tle  man  picked  his  ears,  stuck  his  needle  into  hi* 
work,  and  jumped  from  his  shop-board  with  the 
elasticity  of  a  bull-frog. 


d 


-"Suits?  Fit  ?  my  dear  sir,  I  have  clothes  to  fit 
any  body,  from  a  giant  to  a  dwarf.” 

He  began  to. pull  down  his  paraphernalia  with 
his  usual  celerity;  and  to  make  short  of  a  long  story 
we  were  soon  fitted.  I  wondered  how  they  were 
to  be  paid  for,  as  I  happened  to  know  my  father 
had  at  all  times  considerably  more  wit  than 
■money.  But  1  was  soon  enlightened  on  the  sub- 


AJ 


ject. 

“Friend  Dibdill,”  said  he,  “your  clothes  fit  bet¬ 
ter  than  if  they  had  been  made  for  us;  what 
would  they  have  done  had  you  actually  taken 
measure  ?’* 


can  see  my  brother,  the  Squire,  or  take  an  order 
on  him  for  the  money.  What  say  you  ?  decide 
quick — for  if  you  wont  do  either,  1  must  e’en  take 
up  with  the  bungling  work  of  your  neighbour 
yonder,  who  almost  forced  his  trumpery  upon  my 
back.” 

The  tailor  considered  a  moment,  moving  his 
elbows  backwards  and  forwards,  from  the  mere 
force  of  habit,  as  if  he  was  stitching,  and  then, 
modestly,  and  rather  hesitatingly,  as  if  fearful  of 
giving  offence,  decided  in  favor  of  the  order  on 
Squire  Pumpelly.  This  was  accordingly  given, 
and  we  departed  in  triumph,  in  a  quick  step.  The 


The  little  man  showed  hts  teeth  at  the  compli-  tailor  slipped  upon  his  shop  board,  and  the  last  l 


ment,  but  made  no  answer,  except  repeating  the 
word  44  friend,”  three  or  four  times  with  great  ra¬ 
pidity,  in  a  tone  of  interrogation,  to  which  my  fa¬ 
ther  responded— 

“Aye.  friend  Dibdill,  but  I  believe  you  don’t 
recollect  me,  though  we  have  met  several  times 
at  the  Rev.  Mr.  Snortgrace’s  meeting.  Don’t 
you  remember  what  a  refreshing  time  we  had 
about  seven  years  ago  at  the  great  sermon  about 
earthquakes  ?” 

“  Bless  me !”  cried  the  tailor — “To  be  sure 
I  do,  but  I  don’t  remember  to  have  seen  you 
there/’ 


saw  of  him  he  was  stitching  it  away  with  infinite 
glee. 

I  am  not  ashamed  to  confess — for  I  am  grown 
wiser  now — that  I  felt  a  sort  of  vague  perception 
that  this  operation  of  my  father  was  not  altogeth¬ 
er  justifiable.  Indeed,  I  ventured  to  hint  as  much, 
but  his  answer  silenced  my  scruple*  for  ever. 

“Ferret,”  said  he,  “I  ougift  to  have  bound  you 
apprentice  to  the  simpleton  of  a  tailor,  for  I  fear 
I  shall  never  make  a  gentleman  of  you.  The 
world  will  say  I  have  cheated  the  fellow,  for  it 
is  always  taken  things  by  the  wrong  handle,  and 
you  seem  to  think  so  too.  I  maintain  on  the  con- 
Sure — you  don’t  say  so  ?  Why  I  was  one  of  trary,  that  I  have  paid  him  double  and  treble  the 
those  who  lifted  you  up,  brother  Dibdill,  when  value  of  these  clothes  in  the  lesson  I  have  given, 
you  were  struck  down,  and  carried  you  into  the  The  experience  he  will  acquire  before  many  days 
air  where  you  waked  up,  singing  Hallelujah,  are  over,  will  answer  him  two  most  valuable  pur- 
Don't  you  remember  ?  poses;  it  will  guard  him  from  future  losses  of  the 

The  tailor  reflected  awhile.  kind,  and  if  he  makes  a  proper  use  of  it,  enable 

“Why,  yes.  now  I  think  of  it,  I  think  I  do.  I’m  him  to  practice  the  same  game  on  others.  The  fact 
much  obliged  to  you,  brother.  What  a  shaking  is,  boy,  in  the  scale  of  strict  justice,  he  owes  me 
there  was  among  the  dry  bones  that  day,”  rub-  for  half  a  dozen  suits, instead  of  my  being  indebted 
bing  his  hands.  “But  may  I  crave  your  name  V*  to  the  stupid  hard-working  blockhead.  How 
“Pumpelly,”  answered  my  father,  looking  sig-  I  hate  to  see  a  rascal’s  elbow  moving  at  such  a 
nificantly  at  me.  rate.” 

“Oh!  ves — may  be  a  relation  of  Squire  Pum-  “Had’nt  we  better  go  back,  father,  and  dun  him 
pelly,  the  rich  old  codger  that  lives  across  the  riv-  for  the  balance  he  owes  you  ?”  asked  I. 
er.  I’ve  heard  he’sas  rich  as  King  Solomon.  Any  “Hum — not  just  now,  my  son,  I’m  in  too  great 

relation  ?”  a  hurry  to  get  to  Ragamuffinville.” 

“His  brother.”  replied  my  father,  witii  an  air  of  Accordingly  we  mended  our  pace,  and  in  due 
conscious  dignity.  time  arrived  safe  at  the  great  city  qf  Ragamuffin- 

“Well,  if  ever  !  who’d  have  thought  it  V*  cried  ville,  where  my  father  took  lodgings  in  one  of  the 
the  other,  looking  rather  significantly  at  my  fath-  most  expensive  and  fashionable  establishments  of 
er’s  costume,  which  was  somewhat  weather-bea-  the  place,  observing  to  me,  “that  persons  who 
ten.  lived  by  the  superiority  of  their  wits,  should  al- 

“Yes,  his  youngest  brother.  I’m  on  my  way  ways  go  to  such  places  in  preference  to  obscure 
there  now,  after  an  absence  of  several  years,  in  taverns.  The  very  Fact  of  stopping  at  a  splendid 
which  I  have  been  rather  roughly  handled,  as  you  hotel,  was  a  sort  of  letter  of  credit  among  those 
see.  But  my  brother  has  written  to  me  to  come  two-legged  animals,  who  were  created  as  objects 
and  live  with  him.”  Here  my  father  began  rum-  for  men  of  wit  to  practice  upon, 
maging  his  pockets.  “Plague  take  it!  what  can  The  day  after  our  arrival,  my  father  gave  me 
have  gpne  with  the  letter  ?  O,  now  I  remember  three  dollars,  telling  me,  at  the  same  time,  that 
I  left  it  in  my  trunk  at  the  Ferry  House  down  for  the  present  I  must  expect  nothing  more  Irom 
yonder.  But  to  business,  friend  Dibdill.  I  did’nt  him  but  good  advice  and  good  exemple. 
like  to  appear  before  my  brother,  the  Squire,  in  n  a  . 

such  a  poor  pickle  as  this,  and  so  1  thought  I’d  .  you  se/  tka‘  *,ttl?  red  fla£  0Tcr 

rig  myself  and  my  boy  out  a  little,  that  we  might  the  door  yonder  ?  That  is  a  place  where  great 
not  digrace  him.  I  went  first  to  the  shop  down  bargains  can  sometimes  be  made.  Go  and  try 
yonder  by  the  ferry,  but  the  fellow’s  clothes,  I  your  wits  against  the  auctioneer,  and  if  you 
believe,  were  made  with  a  marlinspike,  after  come  off  triumphantly,  I  predict  your  fortune 
measuring  with  a  broomstick.”  U  made.  You  will  be  a  match  for  the  greatest 

rhe  tailor  rubbed  hi.  hands  and  chuckled  at  ghaTer  the  land  » 

h^ivai  magnanimity  not  to  run  down  j  ol>eyed  hig  commands,  and  came  back  a 

■•Now'  to  come  to  the  point,  my  good  friend,”  “,amc  duck>”  *s  father  called  me-  Th* 
continued  my  father.  “I  have  net  quite  enough  tsian  of  the  hammer  had  made  a  specultiona 
cash,  at  present,  to  pay  for  these  things,  and  so  out  of  me,  that  is,  he  had  taken  me  in.  The 
I  will  give  yeu  the  choice,  either  to  wait  till  I  mode  in  which  he  circumvented  me  was  worth 


1 0303 1  5 


4 


ten  times  the  money,  and  was,  in  fact,  the 
foundation  of  the  vast  property  I  afterwards 
possessed,  and  which,  if  I  could  only  have  paid 
for,  would  have  made  a  little  German  Prince 
of  me.  But  I  lost  all,  as  will  appear  in  the  se¬ 
quel,  by  some  unlucky  democratic  experiments, 
which  I  revenged  myself  upon,  by  calling  them 
“Specie  Humbug,”  “Infamous  Schemes  ”  &, c. 
The  maiaceuvres  of  the  auctioneer  are  too  pre¬ 
cious  to  be  detailed  to  the  public.  I  keep  them 
lor  the  special  use  of  myself  and  confidential 
friends. 

My  father  scolded,  and  laughed  at  me  at  the 
same  time.  “Ferret,”  said  he,  “I  did  not  in¬ 
tend  to  give  you  another  cent  as  long  as  I  liv¬ 
ed.  But  the  first  error  of  inexperience  is  ex- 
curable.  Here  is  two  dollors  more — go  and 
try  your  fortune  again  ;  but  recollect,  if  you 
suffer  yourself  to  be  bamboozled  this  time,  you 
are  no  longer  a  son  of  mine.  Take  care 
how  you  disgrace  yourself  by  another  bad  bar¬ 
gain.” 

I  took  the  money,  and  proceeded  somewhat 
disconsolate  and  mortified  along  the  street,  run¬ 
ning  over  the  process  by  which  I  had  been 
taken  in  by  the  little  auctioneer.  All  at  once, 
the  lecture  of  my  father  on  the  advantage  the 
tailor  had  derived  from  the  experiment  on  his 
credulity,  occured  to  me,  and  1  determined  to 
turn  the  sharp  edge  of  my  newly  acquired  ex¬ 
perience  against  others,  the  first  opportunity. 
This  soon  presented  itself,  and  by  a  process 
which  I  shall  keep  to  myself  for  the  reasons 
just  specified,  I  succeeded,  not  only  in  retriev¬ 
ing  my  former  loss,  but  making  a  snug  penny 
besides.  My  father  received  me  in  triumph, 
and  such  was  his  awakened  confidence  in  the 
superiority  of  my  wits,  that  from  that  hour  he 
predicted  my  future  eminence.  This  incident 
was,  indeed,  the  first  step  in  the  ladder. 

By  good  luck  an  eminent  broker  happened 
to  hear  the  particulars  of  my  last  exploit.  He 
was  struck  with  the  masterly  genius  it  display¬ 
ed;  and  being  a  most  liberal  patron  of  merit,  at 
once  offered  to  take  me  into  his  employment. 
Accordingly,  I  descended  into  his  cellar,  where, 
for  a  time,  I  was  told  to  look  sharp,  listen  to 
every  thing,  and  say  nothing.  Here  was  a  no¬ 
ble  school  to  awaken  the  powers  of  my  mind, 
and  the  exercise  of  my  wits.  The  head  of  the 
house,  or  rather  the  cellar,  was  one  of  the  most 
profound  men  of  his  time,  as  a  proof  of  which 
it  is  only  necessary  to  state,  that  he  began  bu¬ 
siness  with  no  capital  but  his  wits,  lived  like  a 
prince  for  several  years,  without  ever  being 
worth  a  dollar,  and  finally  failed  for  some  mil¬ 
lions.  Here  was  a  sublime  genius  for  you. 
“Here” — to  use  the  words  of  my  father — “Here 
is  the  great  Archimedes  who  can  move  a  world 
by  putting  his  lever  upon  nothing.” 

This  great  man  watched  me  narrowly  for 
some  months  after  my  first  entering  into  his 
employ,  preparatory  to  trusting  me  in  his  af¬ 
fairs.  There  was  an  old  woman  who  had  a 


table  where  she  sold  apples,  cakes  and  othef 
small  wares,  which  frequently  excited  my  long* 
ing,  and  she  carried  on  the  business  just  at  the 
window  of  our  cellar,  I  was  tempted  to  trade 
with  her  whenever  I  had  money.  On  these 
occasions,  my  master  watched  me  closely,  and 
the  result  of  his  investigations  was  exhibited 
in  an  increasing  confidence.  By  degrees,  he 
opened  to  me  the  mysteries  of  the  shaving  bu¬ 
siness, and  displayed  to  my  mind  all  the  wonders 
of  an  invisible  world,  appealing  to  the  imagina¬ 
tion  instead  of  the  senses. 

The  glorious  mysteries  of  kiting,  race-hors¬ 
ing,  and  other  occult  matters  connected  with 
the  sublime  science  of  raising  the  wind  ;  the 
manner  in  which  the  credit  system  is  built  up 
and  sustained,  without  anything  but  itself  to 
stand  upon;  the  masterly  process  by  which  any 
amount  of  ideal  money  may  be  conjured  out  of 
nothing,  like  the  spirit  from  the  cloud,  and 
made  to  represent  ten  times  the  amount  of  the 
same  sum  if  it  were  real;  these  and  some  other 
of  the  “great  principles,”  which  constitute  the 
sublime  of  the  new  credit  system,  he  could  not 
present  to  me,  for  as  yet  they  had  no  existence, 
except  in  the  heated  chaos  of  my  mind,  which, 
from  the  period  in  which  I  received  this  first 
practical  insight  into  the  great  money,  or  rath¬ 
er  credit,  kingdom,  continued  to  boil  and  bub¬ 
ble  with  the  fever  heat  of  grand  conceptions 
fighting  their  way  from  a  faint  embryo  to  a  glo¬ 
rious  maturity. 

But  the  lessons  of  my  master  were  of  the 
highest  use  to  me,  notwithstanding.  Like 
streaks  of  sky,  at  early  dawn,  they  prepared 
the  way  for  the  god  of  light  and  lustre,  and,  at 
the  same  time,  taught  me  to  take  advantage  of 
the  mid-day  splendor,  which  soon  after  opened 
upon  me. 

The  city  of  Ragamuffinville,  just  about  this 
time,  suddenly  awakened  to  a  perception  of  its 
future  greatness,  and  it  come  to  pass  that  every 
body  began  to  live  on  anticipation.  They  look¬ 
ed  forward  about  a  hundred  years,  and  saw  at 
the  end  of  the  long  vista,  a  vision  of  grandeur 
and  prosperity  that  set  them  all  mad.  They 
forgot  that  a  hundred  years  was  a  long  while 
and  that  he  who  incurred  a  debt,  in  the  expec¬ 
tation  of  receiving  a  great  profit  at  the  end  of 
that  time,  was  very  likely  to  die  before  he  could 
realize  his  anticipations. 

Suddenly,  there  was  a  great  and  increasing 
demand  for  money,  for  all  the  world  had  be¬ 
come  borrowers,  to  invest  in  lots,  in  order  to 
take  advantage  of  the  great  rise  in  value 
a  hundred  years  hence.  The  precious  metals 
not  being  of  a  ductile  nature,  and  incapable  of 
expanding  fast  enough  to  suit  these  great  exi¬ 
gencies,  it  became  indispensable  that  some  sub¬ 
stitute  should  be  found,  more  suitable  to  the 
spirit  of  the  age,  and  the  newly  discovered 
wants  of  the  community. 

My  master  every  day  lamented  to  me  the 
contracted  sphere  of  operations  to  which  his 


5 


genius  was  confined,  by  what  he  called  the 
“infamous  Specie  Humbug,”  meaning  the  stu¬ 
pid  attachment  mankind  had  inherited  from  the 
dark  ages,  to  what  they  called  a  standard  of 
value.  “If  I  could  only  make  money  out  of 
nothing,”  would  he  exclaim  in  a  paroxysm  of 
enthusiasm,  “I  would,  in  a  short  time,  possess 
the  world  !” 

i  brooded  on  this  idea  from  morning  till 
night, and  sometimes  lay  awake  for  hours,  think¬ 
ing  on  the  glorious  hope  of  its  successful  ac¬ 
complishment.  I  often  asked  myself  what  was 
the  basis  of  the  value  of  every  thing  in  the  world 
and  at  length  came  to  the  conclusion  that  it 
was  the  general  estimation  of  mankind.  I  then 
proceeded  to  investigate  the  possibility  of  sub¬ 
stituting  an  imaginary,  for  a  real,  value,  and 
appealingto  human  credulity  as  its  basis.  Man¬ 
kind,  thought  I,  worship  false  gods,  adopt  false 
opinions,  and  arrive  at  false  conclusions.  Many 
believe  the  moon  is  made  of  green  cheese  ;  is 
it  not  possible  to  make  them  believe  that  what 
is  worth  nothing  intrinsically,  is  just  as  good 
as  u  thing  of  inestimable  value,  provided  it  will 
exchange  for  just  as  much  ?  What,  proceeded 
I,  was  the  intrinsic  value  of  a  fathom  of  Wam¬ 
pum,  and  yet,  in  old  times,  you  could  purchase 
a  farm  with  it  from  the  Indians,  I  forgot  at 
that  time  that  this  Wampum  was  the  product, 
of  labor,  and  therefore  represented  the  value  of 
all  the  labor  bestowed  upon  it. 

While  my  mind  was  struggling  to  emerge 
from  the  twilight  of  these  conceptions,  into  the 
meridian  day,  my  master  began,  by  degrees, 
toemploy  me  in  transactions  which  became, eve¬ 
ry  day,  more  important  and  consequential.  In 
the  course  of  them,  I  daily  acquired  new  ideas 
and  newr  experience.  I  learned  the  art  of evad- 
ing  the  law*  against  usury,  without  subjecting 
myself  to,  the  penalty  of  their  violation;  I 
mastered  all  the  mysteries  of  the  business  in 
which  I  was  engaged;  and  in  good  time  became 
such  an  adept,  that  I  could  practically  define 
to  a  hair,  the  precise  line  which  separated  a 
lucky  speculation  from  an  act  of  downright 
swindling.  I  could  tell  to  the  utmost  nicety, 
how  far  it  was  lawful  to  play  on  credulity  and 
ignorance,  and  the  extent  to  which  deception 
might  be  carried  without  constituting  a  fraud. 
In  short,  I  could  see  my  way  clear  in  the  dark¬ 
est  transaction,  and  split  a  hair  with  my  eyes 
shut. 

I  was  gradually,  though  not  actually  a  part¬ 
ner,  admitted  sometimes  to  a  share  in  the  pro¬ 
fits  when  I  had  made  a  good  hit,  and  soon  found 
myself  in  possession  of  a  snug  little  sum.  With 
this,  having  the  approbation  of  my  master,  I 
commenced  business  on  my  own  account,  and 
considered  iny  fortune  as  good  as  made,  when 
by  his  influence,  I  was  admitted  a  member  of 
the  Board  of  Brokers,  which,  under  the  present 
severe  laws  against  every  other  species  of  play, 
enjoys  a  monopoly  of  gambling 

In  truth,  it  was  carried  on  upon  a  great  scale. 

A2 


Not  a  day  passed  that  some  one  of  us,  who,  per* 
haps,  was  not  wortli  one-fiftieth  part  of  the 
money,  did  not  play  stakes  for  thousands,  and 
buy  or  sell  what  neither  possessed,  or  vvliat,  in 
fact,  had  no  existence.  But  every  thing  was 
done  in  the  most  gentlemanly  manner,  and  all 
the  members  were  strictly  governed  by  the 
point  of  honor,  which  consisted  in  taking  every 
possible  advantage  of  each  other. 

The  entire  process  was  a  war  between  buyer 
and  seller.  One'  member  would,  for  example, 
offer  a  thousand  shares  of  some  fancy  stock ; 
that  is,  a  stock  which  had  no  definite  value, 
and  another  accept  the  offer,  although  the  form¬ 
er  had  not  a  single  share,  and  the  latter 
not  a  single  dollar  to  pay  for  one.  The 
stock  was  to  be  delivered  at  a  certain  specified 
time,  and  here  commenced  a  great  struggle  on 
the  part  of  the  buyer  and  seller,  one  to  depress, 
the  other  to  raise  the  price  of  the  stock,  by 
rumors  calculated  to  affect  it  one  way  or  the 
other.  It  was  on  one  occasion  of  this  kind  that 
I  made  my  first  great  speculation. 

Happening  to  overhear  a  bargain  of  this 
kind,  for  a  vast  number  of  shares  in  a  certain 
contemplated  rail  road,  a  lucky  thought  came 
into  my  mind.  Without  losing  a  moment,  I 
went  and  purchased,  on  time,  every  share  of 
this  gtock  in  tire  market,  and  of  consequence, 
the  person  who  had  contracted  to  deliver  the 
amount  of  shares,  which  was  very  large,  was 
under  the  absolute  necessity  of  applying  to  me 
when  the  period  of  delivery  arrived.  You  may 
depend,  I  made  him  pay  handsomely,  knowing 
that  he  would  ever  after  lose  the  chance  of  did 
dling  others,  if  he  forfeited  his  honor  on  this 
occasion,  by  being  expelled  the  Board.  By  this 
operation  he  lost,  and  I  gained,  a  little  fortune, 
and  what  wa3  of  no  less  consequence,  a  great 
accession  of  reputation,  on  account  of  my  su¬ 
perior  sagacity  and  forsight. 

The  affair  recommended  me  to  a  certain 
bank,  which  soon  after  installed  me  in  the  of¬ 
fice  of  its  chief  broker,  that  is,  furnished  me 
with  money  to  shave  all  the  good  notes  which 
the  directors  refused  to  discount  at  legal  inter¬ 
est.  In  this  situation  it  was  that  I  invented 
the  famous  mode  of  dodging  the  law  against 
usury,  by  charging  all  premiums  above  the  le¬ 
gal  interest  as  a  commission  for  my  services. 

Being  now  in  a  prosperous  and  honorable 
situation,  I  began  to  sigh  for  the  enjoyment  of 
domestic  felicity,  as  I  could  now  afford  myself 
that  expensive  luxury.  I  accordingly  sought 
a  partner,  and  being  guided  by  prudence,  a* 
well  as  inclination,  married  a  lady  of  a  certain 
age,  who  had  great  family  interest.  Her  fath¬ 
er  was  president  of  a  bank,  and  three  of  her  un¬ 
cles  hank  directors.  This  at  once  initiated  me 
into  mysteries  of  the  “Credit  System,”  as  it 
existed  at  that  time. 

I  at  once  saw  its  defects,  and  my  mind  again 
reverted,  with  increasing  force  and  vigour,  to 
the  question  of  a  currency  founded  exclusive- 


6 


ly  on  public  credulity.  It  is  true,  the  banks, 
as  they  then  existed,  possessed  great  advanta¬ 
ges  in  furnishing  a  currency,  two-thirds  or 
three-fourths  of  which  was  not  represented  by 
real  value.  Still,  this  was  not  the  beau  ideal 
of  my  imagination.  I  reflected,  and  believed 
in  the  possibility  of  perfecting  the  Credit  Sys¬ 
tem,  so  that  it  should  consist  solely  of  credit, 
without  being  adulterated  by  a  single  particle 
of  real  value. 

The  period  was  now  come  for  realizing  this 
long  cherished  vision  of  my  imagination.  I 
wa?rich  in  credit  and  paper-money  ;  the  great 
city  ofRagamuffinville  was  turning  wild  with 
visions  of  what  was  going  to  happen  a  hun¬ 
dred  years  hence  ;  and  there  was  such  a  de¬ 
mand  for  money,  as  all  the  gold  and  silver 
mines  of  the  universe  could  not  supply.  I  had 
also  bank  influence;  and  now  set  about  acquir- 
ing  political  distinction  as  indispensable  to  my 
purposes.  I  turned  a  furious  democrat,  that 
party  being  then  uppermost;  attended  every 
ward  meeting,  and  made  speeches  in  favour  of 
Equal  Rights;  until,  by  degrees,  1  rose  to  be  a 
member  of  the  general  committee  for  nominat¬ 
ing  members  of  Assembly.  When  this  measure 
came  up,  there  were  so  many  candidates,  and 
so  great  a  diversity  of  opinions,  that  we  settled 
the  matter  by  nominating  ourselves,  and  were 
triumphantly  elected. 

It  was  now  that  1  grasped  the  reality  of  what 
1  had  so  long  anticipated.  Before  proceeding  to 
the  seat  of  government,  1  had  projected  a 
scheme  for  a  bank,  founded  on  the  great  prin¬ 
ciple  of  making  money  out  of  nothing;  a  self- 
constituted, self-existent, perpetual-motion  bank- 
machine,  entirely  independent  of  any  represen¬ 
tative  of  real  value,  and  which,  like  a  spider, 
would  spin  its  web  for  catching  flies  out  of  its 
ewn  bowels.  On  opening  my  scheme  to  sev¬ 
eral  of  my  confidential  friends,  who  had  sub¬ 
mitted  to  the  disgrace  of  being  called  demo*, 
crats  for  a  time,  in  order  that  they  might  make 
use  of  their  support  in  the  attainment  of  their 
objects,  they  were  delighted  with  it, — most  es¬ 
pecially  when  they  found  that  my  bank  requir¬ 
ed  not  a  dollar  for  its  specie  basis.  They  ea¬ 
gerly  joined  me  in  a  memorial  to  the  Legisla¬ 
ture,  stating  that  there  was  a  great  necessity 
for  an  increase  of  capital  in  the  great  city  of 
Ragamuffinville,  and  a  great  surplus  capital 
having  no  profitable  means  of  investment ;  and 
that  the  applicants  being  great  friends  to  the 
Equal  Rights  of  the  sovereign  people,  had  come 
forward,  actuated  solely  by  the  public  good,  to 
request  a  charter,  conferring  on  them  certain 
privileges,  which  though  the  people  were  pro¬ 
hibited  from  exercising,  were  exclusively  for 
their  benefit.  This  charter,  1  employed  a  friend 
of  mine,  a  lawyer  unequalled  in  drafting  laws 
for  the  purpose  of  being  evaded,  to  draw  up  in 
such  a  manner  as  that  it  would  require  no  capital 
to  pay  up  the  stock,  and  authorize  the  corpora¬ 
tion  to  do  directly  the  contrary  of  what  the 


Legislature  intended.  With  this,  I  proceeded, 
in  anticipated  triumph,  to  the  fountain  of  legis¬ 
lation. 

On  my  arrival,  1  found  that  almost  every 
member  of  that  honorable  body  had  some 
scheme  or  other  on  the  anvil  for  the  public 
good,  and  in  the  benefits  of  which  he  expected 
to  participate,  only,  as  one  of  the  people.  1  made 
it  my  first  object  to  become  acquainted  with 
the  individual  interests  of  every  member,  and 
set  about  reconciling  them  all,  if  possible.  This 
however,  was  a  task  beyond  my  power  to  ac¬ 
complish, and  it  then  occurred  to  me  that  though 
1  could  not  reconcile,  1  might  unite  them  all, 
and  thus  produce  perfect  harmony.  This  plan 
was  accordingly  adopted,  and  produced  the 
most  beneficial  consequences.  Each  member 
proceeded  on  the  great  and  only  just  principle 
of  reciprocity,  that  is,  each  one  promised  to 
support  every  one  of  these  schemes,  provided 
all  the  others  would  support  his,  and  thus,  the 
whole  batch  was  carried  triumphantly  through 
our  honorable  body  with  only  three  dissenting 
voices,  consisting  of  three  members  who  had 
been  guilty  of  the  unpardonable  negligence  of 
coming  thither  without  a  single  project  for  the 
public  good.  This  was  the  origin  oi'  that  great 
modern  improvement  in  legislation,  called  log¬ 
rolling,  of  which  1  flatter  myself  1  am  the  sole 
inventor. 

My  bank  went  through  with  the  rest,  and 
with  it  commenced  the  new  and  most. glorious 
era  of  that  great  Credit  System,  of  which  it  has 
been  truly  said,  that  its  destruction  would  be 
immediately  followed  by  universal  ignorance 
and  barbarism.  My  lawyer  had  incorporated 
into  our  charter  a  phrase  of  my  own  invention, 
and  which,  m  my  opinion, — and  1  hope  1  am 
not  misled  by  vanity,—- embodies  the  greatest 
improvement  ever  maddfin  the  system-  of  bank 
ing,  1  allude  to  the  provision  that  the  capital 
of  our  bank  should  be  either  paid  in,  “on  secur¬ 
ed  TO  BE  PAID.” 

Under  this  convenient  and  salutary  provision, 
on  the  breaking  up  of  the  session  we  returned 
to  Ragamuffinville,  and  immediately  commenc¬ 
ed  operations.  We  began  with  engraving  and 
filling  up  notes  to  the  amount  of  twice  our  no¬ 
minal  capital,  with  which  we  paid  the  first  in¬ 
stalment  on  our  subscriptions  for  stock,  the 
whole  of  which, with  the  exception  of  a  few  hun¬ 
dred  shares — assigned  to  some  members  of  the 
Legislature  as  a  compliment  for  voting  accord¬ 
ing  to  their  conscicncos-was  distributed  among 
ourselves.  For  the  remaining  instalments,  as 
they  became  due,  we  first  issued  the  stock, 
then  gave  our  notes  of  hand  for  the  amount, 
and  then  pledged  the  stock  as  collateral  securi¬ 
ty. 

Here  then  was  the  credit  system  brought  to 
that  perfection  which  I  had  long  imagined  pos¬ 
sible,  and  now  saw  realized.  It  was  the  ideal 
representation  of  a  pyramid  reversed  j  nothing 
at  the  bottom,  and  a  vast  expansion  of  surface 


7 


at  the  top.  It  was  credit  founded  on  credit, 
paper  on  paper,  and  promise  on  promise.  It 
might,  consequently,  be  extended  to  an  infinite 
series,  or  at  least  so  long  as  human  credulity, 
that  great  beast  of  burden,  could  be  brought  to 
stagger  under  the  blessing. 

We  had  some  difficulty  in  finding  a  cashier 
to  make  oath  that  our  capital  was  thus  “paid 
in ,  or  secured  to  be  paid'”  but,  at  length,  were 
lucky  enough  to  catch  a  man  exactly  suited  to 
our  purposes  ;  one  just  emerged  from  the  er¬ 
rors  of  the  dark  ages,  and  who  recognised  the 
distinction  between  the  letter  and  spirit  of  an 
oath.  He  saw  clearly  that  “secured  to  be  paid,” 
was  an  indefinite  phrase,  and,  consequently, 
meant  just  what  a  man  pleased  to  make  it.  He, 
therefore,  swore  most  manfully,  and  our  bank 
proceeded  to  business,  by,  in  the  first  place, 
lending  twenty-five  per  cent,  more  than  tile 
whole  of  its  capital  to  the  directors,  the  cash¬ 
ier,  and  the  president,  to  wit,  myself, who  claim¬ 
ed,  and  received,  one-third  of  the  whole,  as  my 
lawful  share. 

Having  thus  achieved  the  grand  desidera¬ 
tum  of  making  money  out  of  nothing,  my  next 
step  was  to  turn  the  discovery  to  the  greatest 
advantage  by  changing  what  was  worth  no¬ 
thing  for  something  of  real  value.  The  truth 
is,  1  could  never  entirely  discard  from  my  mind 
certain  unpleasant  intruding  doubts  of  the  sta¬ 
bility  of  my  system,  and  therefore  resolved  to 
make  hay  while  the  sun  shone.  Accordingly, 
J  conceived  another  grand  scheme  for  the  em¬ 
ployment  of  the  surplus  funds  of  our  institu¬ 
tion.  1  proposed  to  a  certain  number  of  t  he 
members  of  the  Legislature,  to  which  1  now 
no  longer  appertain,  a  plan  for  a  great  public 
improvement,  that  is,  a  rail  road  of  a  few  hun¬ 
dred  miles  length. 

The  thing  was  kept  perfectly  snug,  while, 
by  means  of  the  funds  furnished  by  our  Bank, 
which  was  capable  of  expanding  like  an  emp¬ 
ty  bladder,  we  proceeded  quietly  to  purchase 
all  the  land  in  the  immediate  vicinity  of  the 
line  of  the  contemplated  improvement,  which 
was  intended  however  solely  for  the  public 
good.  We  then  once  more  commenced  the 
system  of  log-rolling,  to  which  1  added  another 
lever  of  my  own  invention,  to  wit,  the  agency 
of  lobby  members,  and  the  law  passed  by  a 
great  majority  :  although  sturdily  opposed  by 
an  ignorant,  old  Dutch  member,  who  insisted 
that  the  public  good  had  come  to  signify  noth¬ 
ing  but  private  interest. 

Our  project  went  on  swimmingly,  and  such 
was  the  rise  of  property  along  the  contemplat¬ 
ed  improvement,  that  it  was  sold,  and  resold, 
on  credit,  so  many  times  that  it  was  afterwards 
ascertained  it  had  become  the  representative 
of  more  paper  promises  of  one  kind  or  other, 
than  the  whole  district  of  country  through 
which  it  passed,  would  sell  for,  after,  the  great 
improvement  was  made.  Such  was  one  of  the 
first  triumphs  of  my  new  Credit  System,  the 


gre^t  advantage  of  which  is,  that  it  enables  peo¬ 
ple  to  run  in  debt  indefinitely,  and  property  to 
represent  fifty  times  as  much  paper  as  it  is 
worth. 

As  a  sort  of  interlude  to  this,  I  became  a 
purchaser  of  vast  tracts  of  public  land  in  the 
West,  which  I  paid  for  in  the  notes  of  our 
bank,  on  which  J.  expected  to  realize  immense 
profits,  and  which,  even  thougli  it  fell  in  price, 
would  still  be  worth  more  than  our  paper  pro¬ 
mises,  the  chief  recommendation  of  which  was, 
that  the  moment  they  parsed  from  my  hands, 
as  a  private  person,  in  payment  of  a  debt,  the 
debt  was  paid,  though  they  might  become  ever 
so  worthless  afterwards.  This  is  another  great 
advantage  of  my  newly  invented  Credit  Sys¬ 
tem,  if  not  to  those  who  receive,  at  least  to 
those  that  pay.  In  this  case,  as  I  purchased 
of  Uncle  Sam,  my  conscience  was  quite  easy, 
for  in  case  the  worst  came  to  the  worst,  the  old 
fellow  could  afFo  d  to  lose  the  money. 

I  was  now  rolling  in  wealth  ;  the  idol  of  the 
brokers  ;  the  oracle  of  financiers  ;  th'*  control¬ 
ler  of  the  stock  market;  the  envy  of  all  that 
miserable  race,  which  lives  on  real  property 
and  labour;  and  the  founder  of*  cities,  for  I  had 
laid  out  six  of  these  on  my  new  lands,  or  rather 
on  the  maps  of  my  lands, some  of  which  threa¬ 
tened  to  outgrow  even  the  great  emporium  of 
Ragumuffinville.  Nay,  I  don’t  know  but  I 
may  in  time  become  the  founder  of  a  great 
empire  on  the  North  Pacific,  where  I  onqc  es¬ 
tablished  an  Agency  for  buying  muskrat  and 
mink  skins. 

But  alas  !  there  is  nothing  perfect  in  this 
world,  and  my  new  Credit  System,  though  as 
near  perfection  as  possible,  was  unluckily  a 
little  out  at  one  of  its  elbows.  It  contained  a 
vile  principle,  by  which  it  is  said,  by  pretend¬ 
ed  philosophers,  every  thing  in  the  natural  and 
moral  world  is  regulated.  I  mean  the  mischie- 
vous  and  abominable  piinciple  of  reaction, the 
greatest  enemy  to  the  Credit  System  which 
has  ever  presented  itself.  Under  the  operation 
of  this,  it  is  pretended  that  the  affairs  of  this 
world  resemble  the  action  of  a  pendulum,  which 
the  farther  it  is  driven  one  way  the  farther  it 
will  recede  on  the  other,  thus  ever  returning 
to  opposite  extremes. 

Whether  there  be  such  a  law  of  nature,  or 
necessity,  or  not,  certain  it  that  I  now  be¬ 
gan  to  experience  the  existence  of  some  cause 
or  other  by  which  the  equilibrium  of  rny  new 
Credit  System  was  sadly  disturbed.  At  first  I 
ascribed  it  to  the  great  number  of  banks  which 
had  grov/n  out  of  the  system,  with  capitals 
“ paid  in ,  or  secured  to  be  paid ”  in  a  similar 
manner  to  ours;  and  the  operation  of  the  old 
saying  that  “too  much  pudding  will  choke  a 
dog.”  This  however  was  so  contrary  to  rny 
first  principle,  namely,  that  it  was  utterly  im¬ 
possible  to  have  too  much  of  a  good  thing,  and 
of  course  an  excess  of  credit  and  paper-money, 
that  1  discarded  it  with  contemptuous  indigna- 


8 


tion.  At  length  1  hit  the  nail  on  the  head.  1 
discovered  the  origin  of  all  the  dangers  which 
now  began  to  threaten  my  system  in  two  great 
sources,  namely,  the  “Specie  Circular  and  the 
Specie  Humbug.”  These  two  humbugs  pla¬ 
gued  me  J  exceedingly.  The  former  interfered 
with  the  founding  ot  my  cities  in  the  West, by 
striking  at  the  root  of  my  Credit  System,  which 
contemplated  the  entire  extension  of  every 
tiling  but  promises  to  pay  instead  of  payments; 
and  the  hitter  was  a  serious  obstacle  to  my 
plan  of  causing  the  people  to  give  up  their  ab¬ 
surd  prejudices  in  favour  of  silver  and  gold, by 
keeping  the  latter  outofsiglit  until  they  should 
actually  forget  such  things  ever  existed.  J  al¬ 
ways  considered  specie  as  the  great  plly  of  ignor¬ 
ance  and  barbarism,  and  was  convinced  in  my 
own  mind  that  an  extensive  paper  circulation 
representing  nothing,  and  which  nobody  was 
obliged  to  redeem,  was  the  sole  agent  of  refine¬ 
ment  and  civilization.  And  here  1  must  do 
myself  the  justice  to  state  that  the  idea  winch 
a  “Great  Financier”  of  the  present  day  has 
since  carried  into  practice,  of  issuing  the  notes 
of  defunct  institutions,  upon  the  above  princi¬ 
ple,  was  suggested  by  me  in  a  confidential  con¬ 
versation. 

Be  this  as  it  may,  these  two  mischievous 
humbugs  caused  a  sudden  revulsion  in  the 
flood-tide  of  my  affairs.  The  dunderheaded  peo¬ 
ple,  1  mean  th£  big-pawed  Farmers,  and  the 
hard-handed  Mechanics  and  Labourers,  began 
once  more  to  recall  to  mind  those  demoralizing 
substitutes  for  paper-money,  silver  and  gold, 
which  are  well  denominated  in  the  Scriptures 
the  root  of  all  «vil,  Certain  mischievous  fel¬ 
lows,  out  of  revenge  for  being  disappointed  in 
getting  discounts  at  my  bank,  began  to  write 
essays  in  some  of  the  newspapers  whose  editors 
were  in  a  similar  predicament,  full  of  the  most 
disorganizing  principles.  They  maintained 
the  enormous  heresy  of  Equal  Rights;  denoun¬ 
ced  Monopolies;  denied  that  a  promise  was  the 
actual  substance  of  the  thing  promised,  and 
cancelled  the  obligation ;  and  dared  to  insinu¬ 
ate  that  a  superstructure  that  had  no  founda¬ 
tion  would  be  very  likely  to  fall  to  the  ground, 
the  first  stoim  it  encountered.  Nay,  they  had 
the  hardihood  to  assert  that  of  nothing,  nothing 
could  come,  and  thus  struck  at  the  very  heart 
of  my  system.  In  vain  did  I  marshal  my  for¬ 
ces,  consisting  of  editors  of  newspapers  whom 
1  had  conciliated  by  my  generosity,  and  who 
repaid  me  with  gratitude  ;  politicians  whom  1 
had  linked  body  and  soul  with  the  existence  of 
my  system,  and  who  lived  and  breathed  in  that 
alone  ;  and  legislators  who  had  grown  out  of 
it  like  toad  stools  from  rotten  wood.  In  vain 
did  1  set  on  foot  the  cry  of  Loco  Foco,  Fanny 
Wright,  Robert  Dale  and  Jack  Cade  ;  equally 
vain  that  1  called  on  the  people  who  owed  moie 
than  they  could  pay;  the  people  who  sighed  to 
make  promises  they  could  not  fulfil,  and  all 
those  who  desired  to  live  by  their  wits  instead 


of  their  labour,  to  come  forth  and  defend  their 
possessions,  their  morals  and  their  religion.  All 
would  not  do.  The  stubborn  ignorance  of  the 
mass  of  mankind,  which  prevents  them  from 
knowing  when  they  are  well  off,  or  properly 
distinguishing  betwixt  happiness  and  misery, 
resisted  the  efforts  of  reason  and  virtue,  and  it 
became  evident  that  the  crisis  of  my  great  Cre¬ 
dit  System  was  at  hand. 

It  behooved  us,  therefore,  to  make  ready  for 
the  shock;  and  according  we  preceeded  to  pre¬ 
pare  ourselves  for  a  run  upon  our  Bank.  We 
had  only  specie  enough  in  our  vaults  to  pay 
the  postage  of  our  letters,  and  onr  capital  con¬ 
sisted  entirely  of  the  followed  items  : 

Firstly. — The  notes  of  hand  which  represent¬ 
ed  the  stock  of  the  bank. 

Secondly. — The  stock  of  the  bank  which  re¬ 
presented  the  notes  of  hand. 

Thirdly. — The  debts  due  to  the  bank,  to  wit, 
the  notes  of  the  president,  directors.and  editors 
and  politicians,  we  had  thought  it  prudent  to 
make  friends  of,  in  order  to  resist  the  stupid, 
ignorant  hostility  of  the  4  big-paws’  and  others. 
1  had  almost  forgot  to  mention  that  somewhat 
rising  one-third  more  than  the  whole  amount 
cf  the  nominal  capital  of  our  bank,  was  loaned 
to  myself  and  the  Directors,  of  which  1  had 
by  far  the  largest  share,  as  was  but  just,  see¬ 
ing  1  had  not  only  invented  the  great  improve¬ 
ment  in  the  Credit  System,  but  likewise  the 
means  of  carrying  it  into  execution  by  log-roll¬ 
ing. 

This  brief  exposition  will  serve  better  than 
any  other  mode,  to  exemplify  the  principles  of 
my  system.  The  reader  will  readily  perceive 
that  our  Bank  had  actually  no  other  capital 
than  public  confidence,  or  as  the  infidel  Loco 
Focos,  and  Fanny  Wright  men,  who  believe  in 
nothing  but  Specie  Humbugs,  call  it,  public 
credulity.  This  was  the  perfection  of  my  sys¬ 
tem.  It  is  easy  enough  to  found  a  Banking 
System  on  a  specie  basis,  but  to  raise  it  upon 
credit  alone,  1  consider  the  triumph  of  fiancier- 
ing. 

Our  first  act,  in  order  to  meet  the  unreason¬ 
able  demands  of  the  senseless  people  who  held 
our  notes,  a  great  amount  of  which  we  had  is¬ 
sued  in  anticipation  to  strengthen  us  against 
the  coming  storm,  was  to  discharge  a  great 
duty  to  ourselves.  Charity  begins  at  home,  i3 
one  of  the  fundamental  maxims  of  my  Credit 
System.  So  we  unanimously  decided  to  liqui¬ 
date  our  own  obligations  by  cancelling  all  our 
respective  notes,  given  as  security  for  the  ca¬ 
pital  stock.  Our  next  act  was,  to  cancel  the 
certificates  of  stock  pledged  by  ourselves  as 
collateral  security  for  the  stock;  and  our  third 
to  throw  both  notes  and  certificates  into  the 
fire.  Thus  at  once  was  cancelled  all  our  re- 
sponsibilities  in  the  most  satisfactory  manner. 
The  baftk  which,  according  to  my  great  Cicdit 
System,  originated  in  nothing,  returned  to  its 
original  element  of  nothing,  and  all  parties 


9 


'were  perfectly  content,  except  those  eternal 
and  disorganizing  grumblers,  the  Loco  Focos 
and  Jack  Cade  men  whom  nothing  will  satis¬ 
fy,  who  came  with  their  hands  full  of  our  notes 
to  demand  payment,  and  began  to  talk  of  tar¬ 
ring  and  feathering.  But  the  Mayor  had  pro¬ 
videntially  ordered  out  the  military  to  overawe 
these  unreasonable  villains,  and  so  my  gentle¬ 
men  went  home  with  each  a  flea  in  his  ear.  1 
dare  say  some  of  them  suffered  considerably 
by  the  loss  of  a  pitiful  sum,  unworthy  the  no¬ 
tice  of  the  great  inventor  of  the  Credit  System, 
but  1  have  since  quieted  my  conscience  by  sub¬ 
scribing  liberally  to  soup-houses, and  thus  fairly 
quit  scores  with  these  wretched,  irreligious,  de¬ 
moralized  beings. 

This  equitable  adjustment  of  our  affairs  plac¬ 
ed  me  on  the  very  pinnacle  of  prosperity.  1 
had  paid  all  my  debts  to  the  people,  and  might 
now  have  sat  down  in  the  enjoyment  of  a  quiet 
conscience  amid  unbounded  wealth,  but  the 
truth  is,  1  longed  for  a  single  hundred  thousand 
dollars  more,  to  make  up  two  milUons,  and  un¬ 
fortunately  an  opportunity  seemed  to  present 
itself  just  in  the  nick  of  time. 

1  had  a  particular^friend, — one  with  whom  1 
had  done  business  for  years  past,  and  regularly 
got  to  windward  of  two  or  three  times  a  year  ; 
but  with  all  this  the  fellow  crept  along  prosper¬ 
ously  by  some  inconceivable  means  beyond  my 
comprehension.  There  ara  such  men  in  the 
world,  and  of  all  beings  in  the  creation  they 
most  puzzle  me  to  account  for  their  prosperity. 
They  themselves  pretend  to  explain  it  by  quot¬ 
ing  that  sale  maxim  about  honesty  being  the 
best  policy;  but  for  my  part  1  never  saw  ho¬ 
nesty  achieve  such  wonders,  and  accordingly 
it  does  not  constitute  one  of  the  elements  of 
my  Credit  System.  It  is  at  war  with  the 
spirit  of  the  age  and  the  progress  of  improve¬ 
ment. 

Be  this  as  it  may,  when  in  consequence  of 
the  “suspension”  of  cur  Bank,  I  had  got  rid  of 
all  my  responsibilities  in  the  most  satisfactory 
manner,  and  felt  myself  perfectly  independent 
of  panic  and  pressure,  my  worthy  friend  came 
to  me  one  day  with  a  proposition  to  sdll  a  tract 
of  new  land,  comprising  three  millions  of  acres 
and  several  large  towns  in  perspective.  This 
tract  1  had  originally  sold  him  at  a  pretty  con¬ 
siderable  profit,  and  now  thought  it  would  be  a 
capital  operation  to  purchase  back  again  under 
the  depression  of  the  panic  which  1  was  con¬ 
vinced  would  blow  over  again  and  be  followed 
by  a  corresponding  reaction  of  prices. 

My  worthy  friend  was  excessively  alarmed 
and  consequently  very  desirous  to  sell  his  land, 
and  realize  the  proceeds,  as  soon  as  possible. 
I  took  advantage  of  his  opprehensions,  and  fin¬ 
ally  purchased  back  my  land  at  somewhat  less 
than  half  of  what  1  received  for  it,  paying  him 
cash  in  hand.  The  poor  creature  went  away 
highly  delighted,  and  what  is  not  common  on 
such  occasions,  both  parties  were  perfectly  sat¬ 


isfied.  He  rejoiced  in  selling, and  1  in  purchas¬ 
ing,  what  I  was  assured  would  enrich  me  a  few 
hundred  thousands  in  the  end. 

This  would  undoubtedly  have  been  the  case, 
if  it  had  not  been  for  the  obstinate  ignorance 
and  stupidity  of  our  outlandish  Government, 
which  about  this  time  began  a  series  of  diaboli¬ 
cal  experiments  which  played  the  very  mis¬ 
chief  with  my  Credit  System,  and  gradually 
undermined  its  only  support,  namely,  the  pub¬ 
lic  credulity.  It  undertook  to  refuse  my  bank 
notes  in  payment  of  the  public  lands,  which, 
operated  against  my  system  like  a  two-edged 
sword,  right  and  left.  It  injured  its  credit  and 
depressed  the  price  of  lands,  by  demanding  pay¬ 
ment  in  specie  instead  of  what  all  people  of 
good  breeding  call  its  “representative.” 

It  embarrassed  me  terribly,  and  was  the 
commencement  of  the  downfall  of  one  of  the 
greatest  estates  ever  acquired  by  a  single  man 
in  the  United  States.  People  when  they  found 
themselves  obliged  to  give  real  value  instead 
of  its  respectable  representative  for  lands,  be¬ 
gan  to  calculate  the  cost,  etc.,  which  they  never 
did  before,  when  they  paid  in  promises  which 
neither  themselves  nor  any  body  else  ever  ex¬ 
pected  to  redeem.  Land  began  to  descend  ra¬ 
pidly,  and  like  a  wagon  running  down  hill,  the 
nearer  it  got  to  the  bottom  the  faster  it  went. 
Not  content  with  aiming  this  blow  at  the  na¬ 
tional  prosperity,  this  outlandish  Government 
not  long  afterwards  proposed  the  “Infamous 
Scheme”  of  a  divorce  of  Bank  and  State,  which 
completed  my  downfall. 

“Infamous  Scheme,”  indeed,  for  what  could 
be  more  infamous  than  withdrawing  the  Gov- 
vernment  from  a  partnership  in  which  it  furn¬ 
ished  a  great  portion  of  the  capital,  and  all  the 
credit,  while  the  other  parties  received  all  the 
profits?  It  was  in  fact  a  base  conspiracy 
against  my  system,  and  accordingly  all  the 
really  honest  patriots  raised  a  hue  and  cry  the 
moment  it  made  its  appearance.  I  was  one  of 
the  first  that  moved  in  the  business  by  calling 
a  meeting  of  every  man  who  owed  more  than 
he  could  pay,  in  the  city  of  Ragamuffinville — 
and  they  were  not  a  few  in  number — which 
denounced  the  Specie  Circular,  the  Infamous 
Scheme,  and  the  outlandish  Administration, 
which  had,  by  its  stupid  folly,  arrested  the  ca¬ 
reer  of  my  Credit  System,  and  ruined  the  coun¬ 
try  by  prematurely  experimenting  on  the  ca¬ 
pacity  of  mankind,  to  continue  the  practice  of 
running  in  debt  through  an  infinite  series,  as  1 
am  convinced  can  be  done,  if  no  mischievous 
attempts  are 'made  to  appeal  to  their  common 
sense  and  experience. 

But  1  have  neither  temper  nor  patience  to 
detail  all  the  mischievous  follies  and  stupid  ex 
periments  of  our  outlandish  Government,  and, 
besides,  the  details  of  my  decline  are  by  no 
means  so  agreeable  to  my  recollection  as  those 
of  my  tise.  Suffice  it  to  say,  that  the  great 
land  speculation  1  made  out  of  my  simple  friend 


10 


it  1  thought  him  at  the  time,  was  the  primary 
eause  of  my  catastrophe.  The  blunders  of  this 
outlandish  Government  had  arrested  the  glori¬ 
ous  career  of  speculation,  which  like  a  top  the 
moment  it  ceases  to  whirl  round,  falls  to  the 
ground.  1  had  risen  with  speculation,  and  1 
fell  with  speculation.  1  had  lived  for  years  in 
the  anticipation  of  a  rise  in  the  value  of  every 
thing  on  the  face  of  the  earth,  except  paper- 
money,  and  as  soon  as  prices  declined  1 
became  to  all  intents  and  purposes  u  a  lame 
duck/’ 

It  is  unnecessary  to  enter  into  details,  as  my 
object  is  not  to  record  my  descent,  but  my  as¬ 
cension.  Suffice  it  to  say,  that  the  vile  perse¬ 
cutions  and  egregious  blunders  of  our  outland¬ 
ish  Administration  at  length  brought  me  to  a 
“suspension,”  that  being  the  genteel  phrase  for 
what  used  to  be  called  bankruptcy.  And  hce 
1  will  pause  a  moment  to  observe  on  the  truth 
of  the  Conservative  theory,  that  my  Credit  Sys¬ 
tem  is  the  parent  of  all  that  is  pure  and  refined 
in  human  society.  In  nothing  is  this  more 
strikingly  exemplified  than  the  refinements  it 
has  brought  about  in  our  language.  In  the 
“iron  money  and  black  broth”  days  of  specie 
circulation,  when  a  man  could  not  or  would  not 
pay  his  debts  he  was  called  a  bankrupt, — now 
he  has  only  suspended;  taking  in  another  in  a 
bargain,  was  called  swindling,  now  it  is  specu¬ 
lation  ;  running  in  debt  without  paying,  or 
having  any  prospect  of  doing  it,  is  now  enter¬ 
prise;  crime  is  imprudent,  and  murder,  a  great 
misfortune. 

But  if  any  doubt  remains  of  the  beautiful 
perfection  of  my  system,  it  will  be  found  in  the 
following  fact  which  1  record  as  the  consum¬ 
mation  of  its  triumphs.  1  had  for  more  than 
fifteen  years  lived  in  the  greatest  luxury  and 
splendor;  1  had  spent  in  that  time  upwards  of 
two  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  dollars ;  1  had 
held  property  to  the  amount  of  between  two 
and  three  millions,  and  yet  when  1  came  to  in¬ 
vestigate  my  affairs  critically,I  found  that  at  no 
period  of  my  prosperity  had  1  ever  been  worth 
a  dollar  in  the  world  !  1  n  short,  1  had  been 

over  head  and  ears  in  debt  every  moment  of 
that  time. 

Can  any  one  after  this  doubt  for  a  single 
moment  the  perfection  of  my  Credit  System  ? 
Can  any  man  that  loves  his  country  or  his 
species,  refrain  from  joining  with  me  in  de¬ 
nouncing  the  Specie  Circular,  the  Specie  Hum¬ 
bug,  the  Infamous  Scheme,  and  the  tissue  of 
blundering  ignorance  exhibited  by  our  outland¬ 
ish  Administration  ?  But  for  these  1  might 
have  gone  on  accumulating  “  responsibilities” 
and  spending  money  like  dirt,  to  the  end  of  my 
life,  and  what  if  my  debts  had  increased  all 
that  time  ?  It  would  only  have  been  a  few 


hundred  thousand  dollars  more  issues  of  paper 
money,  by  some  body  or  other,  and  tlw  vacuum 
would  have  been  supplied.  This  is  the  great 
beauty  of  my  system.  It  works  by  an  infinite 
series,  as  it  were,  and  there  is  only  one  trifling 
thing  wanting,  namely,  that  there  should  be 
all  debtors,  and  no  creditors,  i»»  the  would.  I 
don’t  despair  of  bringing  this  about,  when,  as 
will  certainly  be  the  case  a  couple  or  three 
years  hence,  our  ignorant  outlandish  Adminis¬ 
tration  is  replaced  by  my  disciples  of  the  Credit 
System.  Then  shall  we  see  the  age  of  Inter¬ 
nal  Improvements,  unexampled  exquisite  re¬ 
finement,  and  unlimited  public  prosperity,  for 
then  will  every  body  owe  and  nobody  pay ; 
then  will  the  wealth  ot  the  nation,  like  that  of 
England,  be  demonstrated  by  the  amount  of  its 
debt ;  then  will  the  true  Agrarian  principle  be 
in  practical  operation,  for  a  man  who  borrows 
a  hundred  thousand  dollars  will  be  as  rich  as 
the  one  that  lends  it ;  and  then  there  will  be 
no  occasion  for  a  bottom  to  the  sea,  for  the 
whole  world  will  be  adrift  on  its  surface. 

Such  are  the  anticipations  with  which  1  so¬ 
lace  the  lazy  hours  of  my  temporary  retirement 
from  the  business  of  the  world.  My  other 
auxiliary  comfort  is  in  recalling  the  busy 
scenes  of  my  former  career,  and  either  suggest- 
ing  great  speculations  to  others,  or  imagining 
the  muse  for  myself.  In  this  way  1  endeavour 
to  get  rid  of  the  desperate  ennui  of  a  life  free 
from  the  perplexity  and  distraction  of  being  of 
out  of  debt.  1  have  compounded  with  my  cre¬ 
ditors  at  a  pistareen  in  the  pound, and  the  leaden 
depression  consequent  on  being  freed  from  the 
excitement  of  getting  up  every  morning,  with¬ 
out  knowing  whether  1  should  not  be  “  sus¬ 
pended”  before  night;  and  going  to  bed  every 
night  with  the  anticipation  of  being  a  lame 
duck  the  next  morning,  is  now  the  principal 
evil  of  which  J  complain.  It  is  inconceivable 
what  interest  such  vicissitudes  communicated 
to  life,  and  were  it  not  that  1  look  forward  to 
the  speedy  downfall  of  our  ignorant  outlandish 
Administration,  and  the  resuscitation  of  my 
Credit  System  in  more  than  its  past  glory,  1 
really  believe  i  should  be  obliged  to  turn  phil¬ 
anthropist,  to  pass  away  the  time. 

P.  S.  I  forgot  to  mention  that  on  my  retire¬ 
ment  from  the  presidency  of  my  bank,  the  Di¬ 
rectors  unanimously  voted  me  a  service  of 
plate,  worth  twenty  thousand  dollars;  and  that 
my  father,  to  whose  lessons  1  am  indebted  for 
every  blessing  1  have  enjoyed  or  anticipated, 
has  lately  been  appointed  by  the  Federal  Com¬ 
mon  Council  of  Ragamuffinville,  Chairman  of 
the  Finance  Committee, on  account  of  his  great 
talent  at  “ raising  the  wind”  which  is  now  the 
principal  employment  of  our  States  and  Corpor¬ 
ations. 


fROM  THE  NATIONAL  LABORER, 

bank  representatives. 


Of  late  years  there  is  a  desire  manifested  by 
the  wealthy  few  to  change  their  relation  to  the 
great  body  of  the  people,  by  withdrawing  their 
wealth  from  property  which  is  tangible,  and  the 
value  of  which  is  easily  known  and  ascertained, 
and  investing  the  same  in  a  species  of  property  or 
securities  or  whatever  else  it  may  be  denomi¬ 
nated,  called  stocks,  with  the  value  of  which  the 
great  mass* is  wholly  unacquainted;  whereby 
they  obtain  great  and  unbounded  advantages 
over  the  people,  and  control  over  the  public  in¬ 
stitutions  of  the  country — all  of  which  they  have 
been  enabled  to  accomplish  by  means  of  the 
various  charters  of  incorporation  granted  to  asso¬ 
ciated  bodies  of  wealthy  citizens,  by  Congress 
and  the  Legislatures  of  the  several  States,  with¬ 
out  any  sufficient  safeguards  to  protect  the  many 
against  the  avarice,  cupidity,  folly  or  frauds  of 
this  favored  few.  This  fearful  tendency  towards 
the  entire  prostration  of  popular  rights,  is  well 
calculated  to  create  a  belief  and  the  apprehen¬ 
sion  throughout  our  country,  that  those  advan¬ 
tages  so  conferred  on  the  favored  few,  have  not 
been  fairly  and  properly  obtained  from  their  Re¬ 
presentatives ;  and  the  means  whereby  such 
charters  are  obtained,  or  sustained,  and  continued 
in  existence,  demand  the  strictest  scrutiny,  not 
only  on  the  part  of  the  great  body  of  our  citizens, 
but  also  from  such  portion  of  our  Representatives 
as  prefer  duty  to  ease  ;  and  are  willing  to  en¬ 
counter  the  abuse  and  defamation  of  monopolists 
and  their  corrupt  supporters,  rather  than  forfeit 
lhe  confidence  of  the  just,  the  patriotic,  the  dis¬ 
interested.  and  the  betrayed  public. 

Why  has  chartered  monopolies  been  so  multi¬ 
plied  of  late  without  securing  the  public  against 
abuse  from  such  extraordinary  privileges  ?  If 
an  hundred  men  in  their  separate  and  individual 
characters,  as  citizens,  have  not  one  dollar  of 
surplus  cash  to  lend,  can  an  act  authorizing  them 
to  issue  paper  money  add  one  dollar  to  the  cash 
circulation  of  the  coqntry  ?  And  will  not  any 
paper  they  may  issue  for  such  purpose  corrupt 
the  circulation  and  produce  a  public  injury? 

Suppose  on  the  other  hand,  that  the  hundred 
persons  are  each  wealthy,  with  cash  capital,  are 
they  not  then  doing  well  enough  in  the  world  to 
let  them  take  their  chance  with  the  great  mass 
of  citizens  who  are  without  surplus  cash  ?  Should 
their  powers  and  advantages  be  greatly  enhanced 
by  uniting  them  together  as  a  corporate  body, 
unless  intended  for  public  as  well  as  for  private 


good,  and  should  not  every  such  act  secure  the 
public,  against  the  abuse  of  extraordinary  powers 
granted  to  this  body  of  associated  wealth  ?  Has 
this  been  done?  have  our  public  men  become 
careless  in  relation  to  the  rights  of  the  many  T 
Have  they  become  willing  to  sacrifice  the  inter¬ 
ests  of  the  great  body  for  the  favor  of  the  wealthy 
few  ?  Are  they  connected  with  the  incorporated 
wrealth  of  the  land,  in  the  character  of  STOCK¬ 
HOLDERS.  DIRECTORS,  AGENTS,  or  FEED 
COUNCIL,  whilst  assuming  to  perform  the  most 
solemn  duty  of  Representatives  of  the  people? 

It  has  been  alleged  that  many  of  them  sustain 
at  present  this  inconsistent  and  incompatible  re¬ 
lation.  It  has  been  alleged  that  for  the  twenty 
years  which  the  late  Bank  of  the  United  States 
was  in  existence,  every  member  in  Congress from 
Philadelphia  (except  two)  was  connected  in  in¬ 
terest  with  that  institution,  as  DIRECTOR, 
STOCKHOLDER,  COUNCIL,  or  AGENT. 
And  that  frequently  he  who  was  looked  upon  by 
the  public  as  a  Representative  of  the  people,  had 
probably  been  only  induced  to  offer  them  his 
services,  with  a  view  to  look  after  the  interest  of 
the  Bank. 

How  far  other  districts  may  have  been  subject 
to  the  same  abuse,  either  in  Congress  or  in  the 
Legislatures  of  the  States,  we  are  not  informed  f 
but  we  think  it  high  time  that  this  alleged  con¬ 
nection  between  the  peoples’  Representatives 
and  the  Banks  and  other  incorporations  of  asso¬ 
ciated  wealth  should  be  examined  into  and  fully 
understood.  Let  the  public  assemblies  be  purged 
from  even  a  suspicion  of  this  poison  at  the  foun¬ 
tain  of  all  of  our  systems,  and  put  the  public 
mind  at  rest  upon  the  subject. 

Let  all  Stockholders,  Directors ,  Agents  and 
Council  for  the  Banks  and  other  incorporations  of 
associated  wealth,  whether  in  Congress  or  the 
State  Legislatures,  make  their  connection  with 
such  incorporations  known,  and  let  the  Legisla¬ 
tive  bodies  respectively,  by  rule,  debar  such  in¬ 
terested  members  from  voting  on  any  question 
affecting  the  interest  of  such  corporations. 

This  would  shew  the  people  who  were  their 
Representatives,  and  who  were  the  Representa¬ 
tives  of  INCORPORATED  WEALTH. 

44  Laws  are  only  the  terms  by  which  men  have 
agreed  to  live  together  in  society .”  Infractions 
should  be  punished  according  to  the  nature  of 
the  crime,  by  the  sentence  of  impartial  Judges, 
and  the  verdicts  of  disinterested  and  impartial 


s 


jtifufa.  In  a  case  of  life  and  death,  who  ever 
heanl  or  read  of  an  interested  judge  or  juror  be¬ 
ing  allowed  to  sit  and  determine  the  cause  ?  Who 
it  prepared  to  tolerate  such  gross  enormity?  Who 
could  look  on  and  see  a  trial  of  life  and  death 
conducted  by  a  judge  or  jury  who  had  received 
lar^e  sums  to  save  the  life  of  the  criminal  ?  Or 
who  could  bear  or  tolerate  a  system  which  would 
permit  his  feed  council,  who  had  received  a  large 
sum  to  save  his  life,  to  act  as  judge  or  as  « juror 
on  the  trial  ? 

If  a  community  of  freemen  could  not  tolerate 
such  enormity,  how  do  they  look  patiently  on  and 
hear  the  “  feed  council,”  the  director ,  the  stock¬ 
holder,  or  agent  of  a  bank  #r  other  incorporation, 
argue,  debate,  contend  and  vote  in  a  legislative 
body,  on  the  trial  and  arraignment  of  such  cor¬ 
poration,  where  the  issue  is  life  or  death  to  such 
artificial  person  ? 

Can  any  person,  connected  in  interest  with 
such,  whether  as  judge,  juror,  or  representative, 
be  fit  to  sit  or  vote  on  the  trial  ? 

Can  a  lawyer,  with  a  fee  of  only  an  hundred 
dollars,  be  incompetent  by  Teason  thereof,  to  sit 
on  the  trial  of  his  client ;  and  a  bank  council  who 
has  received  his  thousands,  and  expects  his  tens 


of  thousands,  hereafter  be  allowed  to  tif  sod' 
vote  on  the  trial  of  his  client  ? 

We  are  unable  to  comprehend  the  difference 
in.  principle,  in  the  cases;  and  we  understand 
that  in  England,  where  privilege  and  chartered 
monopoly  has  been  carried  to  the  highest  pitch, 
no  member  of  parliament  would  dare  vote  or  act 
in  his  representative  capacity,  in  any  case  where 
his  personal  interest  was  to  be  affected  by  such 
vote,  or  where  he  had  been  connected  with  the 
case  as  council. 

Surely,  we  have  need  of  as  much  purity  in  the 
legislative  bodies  of  our  republican  institutions. 
We,  in  Philadelphia,  the  seat  of  the  old  mam¬ 
moth,  have  a  deep  interest  in  this  question.  We, 
who  ha\  &  been  slain  with  the  jaw  bone  of  an 
ass,  wielded  by  a  little  bank  representative,  who 
frets  hi#  hour  on  the  congressional  stage.  This 
inquiry  should  be  made,  and  at  once;  and  as 
congress,  the  real  focus  of  Bank  politicians,  is 
now  in  session,  it  should  be  commenced  there. 
All  that  is  required  is  an  open  expression  of  public 
sentiment  in  a  tangible  shape,  and  we  feel  con¬ 
fident  that  there  are  independent  Senators  and 
Representatives,  at  Washington,  who  will  probe 
this  sore  of  the  body  politic  to  the  bottom. 


AN  EXPOSURE  OF  THE  ERRORS  AND  EVILS  OF  THE  PRESENT 
ARRANGEMENT  OF  SOCIETY;  WITH  A  PARTIAL  DEVEL¬ 
OPMENT  OF  A  NEW  ARRANGEMENT. 


’"Every  tree  that  bringeth  not  forth  good  fruit, 
Sermon  on  the  Mount. 

In  proportion  as  a  nation  advances  in  knowl¬ 
edge,  m  the  same  proportion  it  ought  to  advance 
in  happiness.  Knowledge  is  only  useful  so  far  as  it 
tends  to  this  end  ;  and  that  knowledge  which 
has  not  this  tendency,  is  no  knowledge  at  all,  but 
mere  trash  and  nonsense. 

Man  has  been  boasting  for  ages  about  his  no¬ 
ble  endowments,  his  vast  intelligence,  his  won¬ 
drous  inventions  and  discoveries,  while  all  the 
time  he  has  been  sinking  deeper  and  deeper  in 
wretchedness  and  vice.  What  use  are  his  noble 
endowments, if  they  tend  not  to  increase  his  happi¬ 
ness?  What  use  are  his  vast  intelligence,  and 
his  wondrous  inventions  and  discoveries,  if  they 
tend  not  to  lessen  the  amount  of  his  misery?  With 
all  his  endowments  he  is  the  most  wretched  ani¬ 
mal  in  existence.  What  other  animal  undergoes 
half  the  amount  of  suffering  that  he  does?  Toil¬ 
ing  incessantly  day  after  day,  and  year  after  year, 
and  with  all  his  toil  can  scarcely  obtain  the  ne¬ 
cessaries  of  life.  At  other  times,  when  denied 
the  privilege  of  toiling,  he  wanders  about  the 
country  in  beggary  and  in  want,  enduring  all 
the  sufferings  that  hunger  and  utter  destitution 
must  occasion.  And  while  this  is  the  case,  he 
talks  and  boasts  of  his  wisdom  and  intelligence  I 
Just  as  if  beggary  and  starvation  were  an  evi¬ 
dence  of  them.  If  wise  and  intelligent,  why  not 
happy?  If  superior  to  other  animals,  why  endure 
more  misery  than  other  animals  ?  If  possessed  of 
nobler  endowments,  why  so  vicious  and  wicked  ? 
But  the  real  fact  is,  man  has  been  in  a  sort  of 
dream  from  the  period  of  his  existence  up  to  the 
present  time.  He  has  been  labouring  under  the 
grossest  delusions.  When  a  mere  infant,  or  when 
about  one  remove  from  a  state  of  monkeyism,  he 
conceived  certain  notions,  and  these  have  guided 
him  in  all  his  crazy  wanderings  from  that  day  to 
this.  These  notions  were  gross  errors,  as  might 
be  expected,  and  the  consequence  has  been  that 
the  world  now  abounds  with  want  and  beggary, 
fraud  and  deception,  robbery  and  murder,  and 
every  other  species  of  crime  and  iniquity,  that  a 
perversion  of  human  nature  is  capable  of.  How 
was  man  in  those  days  to  understand  human  na¬ 
ture  ?  How  was  he  to  draw  conclusions  on  mat¬ 
ters  of  which  he  was  as  ignorant  as  any  animal 
in  creation  ?  How  was  he  to  form  arrangements 
of  the  best  kind  to  promote  our  happiness  ?  Yet 
his  monkey  notions  have  been  handed  down  to 
us  as  genuine  and  infallible  truths.  His  stupid 
arrangements  have  been  maintained  age  after 
age,  not  because  they  promoted  our  happiness, 
but  (wisdom  like)  because  they  were  “ancient 
and  venerable !”  Look  even  at  the  House  of 
Commons  in  the  pesent  day.  There  we  see  men, 
whose  business  it  is  to  promote  the  happiness 
and  welfare  of  the  people,  acting  in  a  manner  the 
most  ignorant  and  irrational.  When  a  measure 
is  brought  forward,  their  first  consideration  is, 
not  how  much  happiness  or  misery  it  will  pro- 


is  hewn  down,  and  cast  into  the  fire.” — Christ’s 


duce,  but  how  will  it  harmonize  with  existing  ar¬ 
rangements  ?  Will  it  interfere  with  any  of  our 
venerable  i institutions?  Is  it  in  accordance  with 
the  wisdom  of  our  ancestors  ?  Is  there  any  pre¬ 
cedent  for  it?  And  in  this  way  they  decide  as 
to  its  adoption  or  rejection.  Now  can  anything 
be  more  ridiculous  ?  Can  anything  be  more  ab¬ 
surd  and  irrational  ?  If  the  measure  will  promote 
our  happiness,  what  do  we  care  about  existing 
arrangements?  What  need  we  care  ?  If  it  will 
lessen  the  amount  of  vice,  and  crime,  and  misery 
amongst  us,  what  do  we  care  whether  it  inter¬ 
feres  with  “  our  venerable  institutions”  or  not  ? 
Yet  these  men  are  called  the  “collective  wisdom 
of  the  nation !”  And  I  suppose  this  is  a  sample 
of  it.  Such  wisdom  may  be  worthy  the  parties 
who  are  blessed  with  it,  but  very  different  is  the 
wisdom  of  rational  beings.  If  we  are  to  be  guid¬ 
ed  and  governed  by  the  “  wisdom”  of  our  ances¬ 
tors,  why  call  us  progressive  beings  ?  And  if 
we  are  progressive  beings,  why  fasten  us  down 
to  their  ignorant  and  irrational  arrangements, 
and  especially  when  we  see  such  vice  and  mise¬ 
ry  springing  out  of  them  ? 

The  only  object  of  our  existence  is  happiness, 
and  if  existing  arrangements  confer  not  happiness 
why  then,  put  an  end  to  them  and  make  better 
arrangements.  This  is  what  reason  and  ration¬ 
ality  would  suggest.  The  more  “venerable”  (as 
they  call  it)  any  thing  is,  the  more  reason  there 
is  for  its  alteration.  Man  is  progressive ;  he  ac 
quires  fresh  knowledge  daily  ;  and  the  arrange¬ 
ments  made  to  day  may  be  greatly  improved  to¬ 
morrow  ;  and  when  this  is  the  case,  how  ridicu¬ 
lous  it  is  to  hear  men  talking  about  maintaining 
our  “venerable  institutions;”  “our  glorious  con¬ 
stitution  in  church  and  state  ;”and  all  such  blurt¬ 
ing  nonsense  ;  but  what  is  most  singular  is,  that 
the  wisest  men  in  the  nation,  or  at  any  rate  those 
who  ought  to  be  the  wisest,  are  the  very  men  who 
are  continually  using  these  ignorant  expressions. 
All  things  ought  to  be  estimated  by  the  good  or 
the  evil  they  produce,  and  if  we  see  an  institu¬ 
tion  producing  evil,  reason  and  rationality  would 
order  its  removal. 

Paine  says  that  “governments  are  for  the  ac¬ 
commodation  of  the  living,  and  not  the  dead 
and  so  it  is  with  all  institutions  and  all  arrange¬ 
ments  whatever.  The  living  alone  are  concern¬ 
ed  and  not  the  dead.  What  then  have  our  an¬ 
cestors  to  do  with  our  wants  and  wishes  ?  Why 
consult  them  as  to  what  sort  of  institutions  we 
shall  have  ?  Their  institutions  might  suit  them¬ 
selves  perhaps,  but  is  that  any  reason  why  they 
ought  to  suit  us  ? 

Let  us,  then,  rise  from  our  slumbering  delu¬ 
sions,  and  devote  ourselves  to  the  grand  and  only 
object  of  our  existence  ;  that  of  making  ourselves 
happy.  Let  us  discover  the  causes  of  human 
suffering  and  all  human  ills ;  let  us  trace  them 
to  their  source,  and  whatever  institutions  may 


4 


occasion  them,  however  “ancient  and  venerable,” 
let  us  remove  them  in  all  possible  haste,  and  sup¬ 
plant  them  with  better.  Let  us  value  institutions, 
not  by  their  age,  but  by  the  amount  of  good  or 
evil  they  produce.  If  we  find  them  producing 
good,  let  us  support  them  ;  but  if  we  find  them 
producing  evil,  let  us  remove  them.  Let  us  do 
these  things,  and  then  will  the  human  race  show 
their  intelligence  and  wisdom.  Then  will  they 
remove  themselves  from  a  state  of  vice,  poverty, 
and  wretchedness,  to  a  state  of  virtue  and  happi¬ 
ness.  Then,  indeed,  we  may  boast  of  our  intel¬ 
ligence  and  wisdom,  our  inventions  and  discove¬ 
ries.  Then  we  shall  have  something  worthy  of 
exultation.  But  to  be  boasting  of  these  while 
thousands  of  people  are  starving, — while  thou¬ 
sands  are  driven  to  theft,  robbery,  and  murder,  is 
a  species  of  brutal  insanity  that  man  alone  is  ca¬ 
pable  of. 

With  this  beginning,  I  shall  now  proceed  to 
the  object  of  this  publication.  I  shall  first  prove 
that  the  present  arrangement  of  society  is  a  bad 
one;  that  it  is  based  upon  error  of  the  grossest 
kind,  and  that,  as  a  natural  consequence,  it  pro¬ 
duces  all  the  misery,  and  vice,  and  crime,  and  all 
the  other  evils,  that  everywhere  abound.  I  shall 
then  explain  the  principles  on  which  alone  the 
happiness  of  man  can  be  founded.  I  shall  de¬ 
scribe  a  few  of  the  arrangements  that  are  neces¬ 
sary  to  this  end,  and  show  their  vast  superiority 
over  any  of  the  arrangements  which  now  exist. 

To  prove  then  that  the  present  arrangement  of 
society  is  a  bad  one,  we  have  only  to  look  at  its 
fruits.  Jesus  Christ  says,  “If  a  tree  bring  not 
forth  good  fruit,  hew  it  down,  and  cast  it  into  the 
fire  and  applying  this  principle  to  the  present 
arrangement  of  society,  let  us  examine  its  fruits. 
If  we  find  that  it  bringeth  not  forth  good  fruit, 
why,  according  to  Christ  himself,  we  are  to  put 
an  end  to  it ;  we  are  to  hew  it  down  and  cast  it 
into  the  fire.  Now  I  would  ask  any  man  whether 
the  present  arrangement  of  society  bringeth  forth 
good  fruit ;  or  wht  ther  it  does  not,  on  the  contra¬ 
ry,  bring  forth  the  very  worst  fruit  that  any  state 
of  society  could  possibly  produce  ?  It  luckily 
happens,  that  this  is  a  case  that  admits  of  no  dis-' 
pute,  for  it  rests  not  on  argument  alone.  It  needs 
no  reasoning  to  decide  it.  These  fruits  are  be¬ 
fore  the  eyes  of  every  man  ;  every  man  can  see 
them,  and  what  is  worse  in  another  sense,  every 
man  can  feel  them.  These  fruits  are,  in  the  first 
place,  anger,  hatred,  and  all  kinds  of  uncharita¬ 
bleness.  In  the  second  place,  beggary  and  star¬ 
vation  ;  groups  of  people  wandering  about  the 
streets  and  roads,  clad  in  miserable  rags,  without 
homes  and  without  food,  and  hundreds  die  week¬ 
ly  through  hunger  and  utter  destitution.  Our 
houses  are  scarcely  ever  freed  from  some  object 
of  want  and  wretchedness.  Thousands  of  people 
are  driven  to  the  commission  of  all  manner  of 
crimes.  Theft  and  robbery,  and  murder,  and 
prostitution,  and  suicides,  everywhere  abound  ; 
our  gaols  are  crammed  with  these  unfortunate 
victims.  It  has  even  become  dangerous  to  be  out 
in  the  dark  ;  robberies  are  committed  in  the  open 
streets ;  no  man  is  safe ;  although  policemen  and 
watchmen  are  stationed  in  all  quarters.  People 
are  reckless  of  their  fate ;  enduring  all  the  suffer¬ 
ings  of  hunger  and  want,  while  they  see  an  abun¬ 
dance  around  them,  they  are  excited  to  the  com¬ 
mission  of  any  crime;  and  they  care  not  the  con¬ 
sequences  of  it.  If  they  are  sent  to  gaol,  it  is  more 
a  relief  than  a  punishment,  and  if  they  escape, 
they  are  obliged  to  continue  their  dreadful  pur¬ 
suits.  In  short,  none  of  us  are  happy ;  those  who 


have  wealth  are  afraid  of  losing  it ;  they  are  tor¬ 
mented  with  all  kinds  of  fears  and  anxieties;  and 
those  who  have  none  are  either  starving,  or  in  a 
state  approaching  to  it. 

Now,  these  are  the  fruits  of  the  present  sys¬ 
tem  ;  they  are  plain  and  visible  before  the  eyes 
of  all  men  ;  and  will  any  man  say  they  are  good 
fruits?  Can  any  man  say  it  ?  No,  it  is  impossi¬ 
ble.  Well,  then,  what  is  to  be  done?  Why,  “if 
a  tree  bring  not  forth  good  fruit,  hew  it  down, 
and  cast  it  into  the  fire.*’  This  is  the  command 
of  Christ  himself.  Can  anything  be  plainer? 
What,  then,  can  out  opponents  say  ?  Will  they 
for  a  moment  talk  about  consistency  ?  Is  it  con¬ 
sistency  to  believe  in  the  doctrines  of  Jesus  Christ, 
and,  at  the  same  time,  act  in  opposition  to  them  ? 
Is  this  Christianity?  Yet  the  whole  of  those 
who  call  themselves  Christians  do  this.  Here  is 
a  system  producing  all  the  evils  that  any  man 
can  imagine,  and,  instead  of  putting  an  end  to  it 
according  to  the  direction  of  Christ  himself,  they 
are  actually  supporting  it ;  they  are  maintaining 
the  very  thing  they  ought  to  destroy.  And  what 
is  the  most  unaccountable,  while  we  are  attempt¬ 
ing  to  destroy  it,  by  establishing  a  better,  and 
thus  obeying  the  commandment  of  Jesus  Christ, 
our  opponents  have  the  modesty  to  call  us  Infi¬ 
dels  and  themselves  Christians.  So  that,  besides 
this  abominable  absurdity,  here  they  are  outrag¬ 
ing  the  very  dictionary;  they  are  reversing  the 
meaning  of  words.  According  to  them,  those 
who  practise  Christ’s  doctrines  are  Infidels,  and 
those  who  do  not  are  Christians.  But  such  are 
their  wise  and  rational  proceedings. 

Now,  considering  for  a  moment  the  fruits  of 
this  system,  the  unlimited  number  of  evils  that 
flow  from  it  in  all  directions,  and  the  severity  of 
these  evils,  what  are  we  to  think  of  the  men  who 
say  that  such  a  system  is  a  good  one,  and  that  it 
needs  no  alteration  ?  Can  such  men  care  a  farth¬ 
ing  about  morality  or  virtue  ?  Can  they  care  a 
farthing  about  common  humanity  ?  Above  all, 
can  they  care  a  farthing  about  religion  ?  Yet 
(and  who  could  believe  it  ?)  the  ministers  of  the 
gospel,  the  promoters  of  morality  and  religion, 
are  the  very  men  who  are  first  and  foremost  in 
maintaining  this  system.  But  I  will  leave  the 
matter  with  themselves  to  settle.  Christ  says 
distinctly  that  such  a  system  ought  to  be  destroy¬ 
ed,  and  with  him  they  may  settle  their  differ¬ 
ence. 

To  hear  people  talk  about  religion,  about  mor¬ 
ality,  about  virtue,  about  venerable  institutions, 
and  about  maintaining  our  glorious  constitution 
in  church  and  state,  in  the  midst  of  these  things, 
is  truly  abominable.  Nothing  can  be  more  out¬ 
rageously  ridiculous. 

But  even  .this  is  a  faint  description  of  the  evils 
which  surround  us  ;  it  is  quite  impossible  to  com¬ 
prehend  them,  much  less  describe  them.  It  has 
been  proved  over  and  over  again,  before  commit¬ 
tees,  of  the  House  of  Commons,  that  hundreds  of 
people  die  through  pure  starvation  and  nothing 
else  ;  that  tens  of  thousands  are  laboring  for  four 
and  five  shillings  a  week;  that  this  sum  is  all  they 
have  to  maintain  themselves  and  families ;  that 
their  principal  food  is  oatmeal  and  potatoes,  with 
occasionally  some  salt  herrings.  Now,  in  the 
face  of  these  things,  what  are  we  to  think  when 
we  consider  that  the  people  of  this  country  can 
produce  four  or  five  times  more  wealth  than  they 
can  consume  ?  That  they  can  produce  more  food 
and  clothing  than  all  of  us  could  eat  or  wear, and 
yet  thousands  of  us  are  starving  ?  Does  it  not 
argue  ignorance  in  some  quarter  ?  Does  it  not 


5 


i 


prove  that  those  who  manage  our  affairs  are  ei¬ 
ther  grossly  ignorant  or  that  they  grossly  neglect 
their  business?  One  or  the  other  of  these  it  must 
prove,  and  whichever  it  be,  neither  ought  to  be 
suffered  to  continue. 

Look  for  a  moment  into  their  own  newspapers; 
read  their  own  accounts  of  the  evils  that  exist. 
See  the  anger,  and  hatred,  and  strife,  and  fraud, 
and  deception,  and  theft,  and  •  robbery,  and  mur¬ 
der,  and  suicides,  and  crimes,  and  evils  altogeth¬ 
er  unlimited  in  number,  and  all  proceeding  from 
this  brutal  arrangement  of  society.  People  are 
driven  into  all  kinds  of  vice,  solely  from  the  want 
of  the  means  of  a  livelihood.  Thousands  of  fe¬ 
males  are  driven  to  prostitution  through  this 
cause,  and  no  other,  and  evidence  of  it  is  to  be 
found  in  their  own  newspapers.  Yet  we  are  told 
by  the  ministers  of  the  gospel,  whose  duty  it  is  to 
put  an  end  to  these  things,  that  no  alteration  is 
required,  that  no  change  is  necessary  ;  and  that 
we  are  Infidels  for  desiring  it.  Now,  can  any¬ 
thing  be  more  enormously  wicked  ?  Can  any¬ 
thing  be  more  abominably  outrageous  ?  Because 
we  wish  to  put  an  end  to  want,  and  vice,  and 
wickedness,  we  are  infidels,  and  bad  men  !  They 
may  go  on  a  little  longer  in  this  way,  but  the  time 
is  not  far  distant  when  very  different  wilt  be  their 
language,  and  very  different  their  proceedings. 
The  veil  which  has  for  ever  darkened  the  eyes 
of  the  people,  is  now  being  removed.  It  has  been 
torn  from  the  eyes  of  thousands,  in  spite  of  all  the 
efforts  of  the  priesthood  to  prevent  it.  And  I  beg 
to  inform  them,  that  in  the  course  of  a  very  few 
years  longer,  the  whole  will  be  as  completely  re¬ 
moved,  as  darkness  is  removed  by  the  rising  of 
the  sun. 

Talk  about  morality,  indeed!  My  opinion  is, 
that  he  who  would  continue  the  present  arrange¬ 
ment  of  society,  is  the  most  immoral  man  in  exis¬ 
tence.  He  might  as  well  tell  us  at  once,  that  star¬ 
vation,  and  theft,  and  robbery,  and  murder,  and 
suicide,  and  prostitution,  are  all  good  things,  and 
ought  to  exist.  These  are  the  fruits  of  the  present 
arrangement,  and  any  man  who  maintains  it, 
maintains  at  the  same  time,  a  continuance  of  all 
its  fruits.  Can  anything  be  plainer  than  this  ? 
Can  anything  be  more  logical  ?  Let  the  parsons 
who  have  been  at  their  universities,  refute  it  if 
they  can. 

Now,  as  to  the  human  suffering  that  this  system 
must  occasion,  there  is  no  estimating  the  amount. 
It  is  altogether  inconceivable.  Look  at  the  num¬ 
ber  of  suicides  that  take  place  weekly,  through  a 
reverse  of  fortune,  embarrassed  affairs,  and  vari¬ 
ous  other  causes  springing  out  of  this  system. 
Think  of  the  mental  agony  of  the  families  of  these 
people.  Look  at  the  thousands  of  people  walk¬ 
ing  about  in  utter  destitution;  driven  about  from 
parish  to  parish ;  their  sufferings  mocked  instead 
of  relieved.  Read  the  account  of  a  poor  woman 
in  London,  who  had  a  child  dead ;  read  of  her 
wandering  about  from  parish  to  parish  for  assist¬ 
ance,  to  enable  her  to  bury  it ;  and  read  of  a  bru¬ 
tal  overseer,  after  refusing  her  relief,  telling  her 
to  go  to  the  doctor’s  and  sell  it!  Think  of  the 
distraction  of  this  poor  woman,  and  the  outrage 
thus  done  to  her  feelings.  Read  also  of  a  case 
which  lately  happened  in  Scotland  ;  a  poor  man 
having  a  child  dead,  had  it  buried,  but  not  hav¬ 
ing  the  means  of  paying  the  burial  dues,  it  was 
ordered  to  be  taken  up  again,  and  the  wretched 
man  carried  it  home  under  his  arm.  These  are 
fine  samples  of  Christian  charity  and  benevo¬ 
lence.  These  are  fine  specimens  of  the  benign 
influence  of  the  Christian  religion.  Read  also  of 


a  poor  woman  and  her  two  children,  in  a  state  of 
complete  exhaustion  and  despair,  taking  refuge 
among  pigs  ;  read  of  her  children  being  found 
next  morning  dead  by  her  side  ;  and  herself  in¬ 
sensible,  and  scarcely  alive.  Read  of  these  things, 
and  thousands  of  others  which  happen  daily,  and 
then  comprehend,  if  you  can,  the  wickedness  of 
the  men  who  would  continue  such  a  system.  And 
in  the  face  of  these  things,  does  it  become  us  to 
talk  about  our  Christian  charity  and  benevo¬ 
lence  ;  our  “  venerable  institutions,”  and  such 
like  stuff? 

Think  also  of  the  sufferings  of  thousands  of 
people  who  are  confined  in  prisons,  and  of  others 
who  have  been  transported  from  their  native 
country,  think  of  the  sufferings  of  the  families  and 
relations  of  all  these  people,  and  then  consider 
that  the  whole  of  them  might  have  been  made, 
under  wise  and  rational  arrangements,  intelligent 
and  virtuous  men  and  women.  Consider  this, 
and  thfen  estimate  the  wisdom  and  humanity  of 
those  who  manage  our  affairs.  Talk  about  hu¬ 
manity!  Why,  if  there  w  ere  one  particle  left 
among  the  intelligent  part  of  the  people  of  this 
country,  could  they  remain  silent  under  such 
scenes  ?  Could  they  see  all  this  misery  and  suf¬ 
fering  inflicted  upon  their  fellow-creatures,  with¬ 
out  attempting  to  relieve  them?  Yet  they  do  see 
it,  and  they  see  it  apparently  with  callous  indif¬ 
ference.  But  the  reason  is,  this  brutalizing  sys¬ 
tem  has  destroyed  the  best  feelings  that  belong  to 
our  nature.  It  has  made  man  the  enemy  of  man, 
by  the  scramble  which  is  going  on  for  wealth. 
The  interest  of  one  man  is  opposed  to  that  of  the 
other,  and  hence  these  scenes  of  outrage  and  dis 
order. 

But  the  evils  of  the  present  system  are  alto¬ 
gether  unbounded.  They  are  daily  and  hourly 
to  be  seen;  and,  therefore,  to  enumerate  any  more 
is  both  useless  and  a  waste  of  time.  I  have  al¬ 
ready  noticed  fifty  times  more  than  sufficient  to 
prove  that  the  system  is  a  bad  one,  and  that  we 
ought  immediately  to  alter  it.  Having  then  set¬ 
tled  this  point,  I  now  come  to  the  errors  upon 
which  it  is  built ;  the  greund  and  source  of  all  its 
manifold  evils. 

The  source,  then,  of  all  our  troubles,  is  the  be¬ 
lief  of  man’s  responsibility,  in  conjunction  with  a 
system  of  individual  property.  This  is  the  vol¬ 
cano  from  which  issue  all  the  evils  that  afflict  us. 
Not  an  evil  can  be  mentioned,  that  cannot  be 
traced  to  this  source.  All  the  anger,  afl  the  ha¬ 
tred,  all  the  revenge,  all  the  deception,  all  the 
fraud,  all  the  uncharitableness  of  every  kind,  all 
the  vice,  all  the  theft,  all  the  robberies,  all  the 
murders,  all  the  wars,  all  the  suicides,  all  the 
prostitution,  and  every  other  species  of  evil  that 
exists,  can  be  as  clearly  traced  to  this  cause  as 
the  branches  of  a  tree  can  be  traced  to  its  root. 
Now  this  being  the  case,  when  we  can  trace  all 
these  evils  to  the  belief  of  man’s  responsibility,^ 
that  alone  not  sufficient  to  prove  it  false  ?  Truth 
could  never  occasion  these  things.  Truth  is  the 
source  of  good,  and  error  alone  the  source  of  evil. 
Were  it  otherwise,  then,  indeed,  we  might  com¬ 
plain  of  some  imperfection  in  nature;  then,  we 
might  talk  about  the  fall  of  man,  the  depravity  of 
his  heart,  his  inward  corruption,  and  all  such 
.vulgar  and  ignorant  nonsense.  But,  when  we 
can  trace  all  our  evils  to  gross  and  palpable  er¬ 
rors;  when  we  find  invariably  that  truth  pro¬ 
duces  good,  and  error  produces  evil ;  then,  in¬ 
deed,  we  are  sensible  of  the  beauty  and  harmo¬ 
ny  of  nature’s  laws  ;  then  we  are  impressed  with 


6 


their  grandeur  and  excellence,  and  filled  with 
feelings  of  wonder  and  admiration. 

Perhaps,  of  all  the  absurdities  that  are  to  be 
found  in  the  minds  of  Christians,  the  one  that  here 
presents  itself  is  the  greatest.  They  tell  us  that 
man  is  a  responsible  being ;  that  he  ought  to  be 
punished  for  his  wickedness ;  and  if  we  ask  them 
what  makes  man  wicked  ?  “Oh,”  say  they,  “it 
is  his  corrupt  nature,  his  depraved  heart.”  Now, 
although  our  opponents  say  many  wild  and  curi¬ 
ous  things,  although  they  stick  not  at  trifles,  sure¬ 
ly  they  will  never  presume  to  say  that  man  makes 
his  own  nature  or  his  own  heart.  Yet,  unless 
they  do  this,  what  are  they  to  do  ?  His  deprav¬ 
ed  heart  and  corrupt  nature  lead  him  into  wick¬ 
edness,  and  if  he  did  not  make  these  himself, 
surely  they  are  not  so  cruel  as  to  make  him  re¬ 
sponsible  for  them.  If  man  has  a  depraved  heart 
and  a  corrupt  nature,  how  can  he  help  it  ?  He 
did  not  make  them  so;  he  could  not  make  his 
own  nature  or  his  own  heart,  and  if  these,  are  bad 
why  blame  him  for  it  ?  He  could  not  help  it. 

But,  besides  this,  here  they  are  actually  charg¬ 
ing  God  with  making  man  depraved  and  corrupt. 
Now,  if  we  were  to  do  this;  if  we  were  thus  pre¬ 
sumptuously  to  find  fault  with  the  works  of  God, 
why,  all  the  dictionaries  in  the  world  would  not 
afford  them  language  sufficiently  expressive  to 
describe  our  horrible  blasphemy,  our  daring  in¬ 
sult  to  the  Deity.  But  as  it  is,  as  the  act  is  theirs, 
and  not  ours,  it  is  all  quite  right.  It  is  quite  pious 
and  quite  religious.  There  is  no  blasphemy  at 
all  in  it.  They  are  one  thing,  and  we  are  anoth¬ 
er,  and  this  makes  the  difference. 

Our  opponents  presume  to  talk  about  our  prin¬ 
ciples  leading  men  into  vice  and  crime;  but  if 
such  notions  as  these  have  not  that  tendency, 
nothing  in  this  world  can  have  it.  Here  they  tell 
the  human  race  that  they  are  all  made  corrupt 
and  depraved,  that  they  are  “rotten  to  the  very 
core,”  as  Mr,  Roebuck  said,  “that  their  hearts  are 
deceitful  above  all  things,  and  desperately  wick¬ 
ed;”  which  is  all  blasphemy,  if  anything  can  be 
blasphemy  ;  and  the  human  race,  believing  all 
this,  act,  of  course,  as  we  see  them  act;  they  fall 
into  all  kinds  of  vice  and  wickedness.  Were 
they  told  the  contrary  of  this,  they  would  then 
have  some  encouragement  to  be  good;  they  would 
then  know  that  they  could  be  good.  But  to  tell 
them  they  are  bad  bv  nature;  that  they  are  prone 
to  evil,  and  especially  when  practising  all  kinds 
of  vice,  is,  in  my  opinion,  a  direct  encouragement 
to  vice.irlf  their  tendency  to  evil  is  greater  than 
that  to  good,  how  can  they  help  it  ?  It  is  perfect¬ 
ly  rational  that  they  should  be  vicious.  Their 
vice  is  the  result  of  one  of  the  natural  laws  of  the 
universe.  That  which  is  heavy,  will  always 
weigh  down  that  which  is  light.  Any  man  who 
knows  what  a  pair  of  scales  are,  knows  this.  But, 
let  me  ask  here,  is  it  possible  that  men  who  be¬ 
lieve  this  can  believe  that  man  is  a  responsible 
being  ?  Can  they  punish  him  for  that  which, 
they  must  admit  themselves,  is  a  natural  result 
of  the  immutable  laws  which  govern  the  uni¬ 
verse?  Yes,  it  is  possible.  There  are  thousands 
of  men  who  believe  this  ;  and  if  we  venture  to 
express.however  mildly  our  dissent  from  such  no 
tions  ;  oh,  we  are  infidels,  deists,  and  a* heists, 
and  bad  men  !  Such  is  their  wisdom  and  chari¬ 
ty- 

Now,  were  the  human  race  told  that  all  these 
notions  were  gross  errors,  that  they  were  abso¬ 
lute  trash  :  that  man  was  not  prone  to  evil,  that 
he  was  not  naturally  corrupt,  or  depraved,  that 
his  nature  was  good,  but  that  the  source  of  his 


evil  was  his  ignorance  of  what  that  nature  isr 
and  not  in  the  nature  itself,  together  with  the  in¬ 
stitutions  surrounding  him,  which  have  arisen 
out  of  that  ignorance;  were  they  told  this,  they 
could  then  remedy  the  evil.  They  would  then 
set  about  acquiring  knowledge  of  their  nature, 
and  this  would  enable  them  to  alter  existing  in¬ 
stitutions,  and  thus  would  the  source  of  their 
evils  be  removed.  But,  to  tell  them  that  this 
source  is  their  own  bad  nature,  and  not  in  exist¬ 
ing  institutions,  is,  as  I  said  before,  a  direct  en¬ 
couragement  to  vice,  and  its  present  prevalence 
is  a  proof  of  it.  They  cannot  alter  their  own  na¬ 
ture,  and  hence  they  remain  in  the  poverty, 
the  vice,  and  the  misery  in  which  we  now  see 
them. 

But  I  must  now  return  more  immediately  to 
my  subject.  These  absurdities  presented  them¬ 
selves  so  glaringly,  that  I  thought  I  would  finish 
them  off  before  I  proceeded  further.  Hitherto,  I 
have  only  asserted  that  man  is  not  a  responsible 
being,  but  now  I  shall  proceed  to  prove  it.  As 
some  disputes  have  arisen  as  to  what  we  really 
mean  by  this  word,  “responsibility,”  I  will  de¬ 
fine  it  before  I  go  further.  Man,  we  say,  is  not  a 
responsible  being.  By  this  we  mean, that  he  is  nei¬ 
ther  to  be  blamed  nor  praised,  rewarded  nor  pun 
ished  for  either  his  thoughts,  feelings,  or  actioris. 
This  is  the  utmost  extent  of  our  irresponsibility 
And  the  reason  is,  that  all  these  are  given  to  man 
independent  of  himself.  That  society  has  the 
power  to  give  to  each  individual,  good  thoughts 
or  bad  thoughts,  good  feelings  or  bad  feelings,  and 
good  actions  or  bad  actions,  and^  in  short,  to  make 
for  each  individual  any  sort  of  character  it  pleases. 
Now,  when  this  is  the  case,  we  say  it  is  unrea¬ 
sonable,  irrational,  and,  at  the  same  time,  cruel,, 
to  make  man  responsible ;  that  is  to  say,  blame 
him  or  praise  him,  reward  him  or  punish  him, 
whatever  his  character  may  be. 

Now,  that  man's  character  is  formed  for  him, 
and  not  by  him,  I  shall  now  proceed  to  prove. 
When  a  child  comes  into  the  world,  its  character 
depends,  in  the  first  place,  upon  its  physical  or¬ 
ganization;  and,  in  the  second  place,  upon  the 
particular  training  up  that  it  shall  receive,  and 
all  external  circumstances  that  shall  surround  it 
from  birth.  Now,  that  the  child  had  no  power 
in  forming  its  physical  organization,  ho  man,  for 
a  moment,  can  doubt.  Its  brain, and  everything 
else  were  given  to  it  altogether  independent  of 
itself,  and  therefore  it  cannot  be  responsible  for 
these.  Its  particular  training  up  is  the  next 
thing  to  look  at.  Has  it  any  power  over  it  ?  Can 
it  direct  its  parents  how  they  are  to  manage  it  ? 
The  thing  must  be  evident.  It  has  no  more  pow¬ 
er  in  this  case  than  it  had  in  the  other,  and  that 
was  none  at  all ;  and  hence  it  follows  that  its 
character  was  given  to  it  independent  of  itself, 
and,  therefore.it  is  not  a  responsible  being; 

Is  it  not  plain  and  simple  that  if  it  have  a  good 
organization,  and  a  good  training  up,  and  placed 
in  good  circumstances,  that  it  will  have  a  good 
character  ;  and  if  it  have  the  opposite  of  these, is 
it  not  equally  plain  and  sinfple  that  it  will  have 
a  bad  character  ?  How  is  it  that  the  English  have 
one  general  character,  the  Scotch  another,  the 
Irish  another,  the  French  another,  the  Italians 
another,  and  so  on  through  all  the  nations  of  the 
world  ?  Is  it  because  each  nation  has  willed  its 
particular  character,  or  that  it  desired  it  in  pre¬ 
ference  to  any  other  ?  No.  It  is  entirely  because 
the  circumstances  surrounding  each  are  different 
the  training  up  is  different,  the  education  differ¬ 
ent,  the  religion  different,  the  habits  different,  the 


7 


manners  different,  and  so  on;  and  hence  the  dif¬ 
ference  of  characters.  And  if  we  confine  our¬ 
selves  to  our  own  country  we  shall  see,  in  the 
same  way,  a  variation  of  characters  according  to 
the  variation  of  circumstances,  only  on  a  smaller 
scale.  How  is  it  that  one  man  is  virtuous  and 
another  is  vicious?  Is  it  because  the  parties  will¬ 
ed  having  these  characters;  or  is  it  not  owing  to 
the  different  circumstances  ofe.ich?  If  I  have 
a  good  organization  and  placed  in  good  circum- 
stances,  I  am  sure  to  have  a  good  character; 
but  then  I  did  not  form  it  myself.  I  did  not  form 
my  own  organization,  nor  did  I  place  myself  in 
these  good  circumstances  ;  and  if  these  form  my 
character,  what  nonsense  it  is  to  say  that  I  form¬ 
ed  it 

But  what  is  very  singular,  while  our  opponents 
say  that  man  forms  his  own  character,  they  are 
actually  practising  the  opposite  doctrine.  In 
bringing  up  their  children,  how  careful  they  are 
in  keeping  them  out  of  bad  company  *  and  how 
particular  they  are  as  to  the  school  they  send 
them  to.  They  inquire  into  the  moral  character 
of  the  master,  his  religion,  and  various  other  mat¬ 
ters  ;  and  they  do  all  this  for  fear  their  children 
should  be  liable  to  contract  bad  habits,  see  bad 
examples,  and  thus  acquire  a  bad  character.  Yet, 
in  the  face  of  all  this,  they  tell  us  that  man  forms 
his  own  character.  Why,  if  he  did,  what  is  all 
for  this  ?  Why  exercise  all  this  care  in  preserv¬ 
ing  their  children  from  bad  company,  bad  prac¬ 
tices,  bad  examples,  and  other  unfavourable  cir¬ 
cumstances?  What  effect  ean  these  have  upon 
them  if  they  form  their  own  characters?  And  if 
these  have  some  effect  upon  them,  as  they  evi¬ 
dently  believe  they  have,  is  not  that  proof 
enough  that  they  do  not  form  their  own  charac¬ 
ters? 

Now,  can  our  opponents  call  this  consistent  ? 
Can  they  pretend  there  is  nothing  irrational  here? 
Practising  the  very  thing  which  they  deny  ;  act¬ 
ing  upon  our  principles,  and  at  the  same  time  de¬ 
nying  their  truth.  Is  this  consistent  ?  Is  it  ra¬ 
tional  ?  But  the  whole  of  their  practices  and  pro¬ 
fessions  are  a  jumble  of  contradictions  from  be¬ 
ginning  to  end. 

Another  instance  of  absurdity  of  a  similar  kind  is 
to  be  found  in  a  report  of  a  committee  of  the  House 
of  Commons,  to  inquire  into  the  condition  of  the 
laboring  classes.  Among  the  witnesses  who  were 
examined  was  a  parson  ©f  the  Church  of  Eng¬ 
land,  which  circumstance  by  no  means  renders 
the  absurdity  anything  the  less.  After  proceed¬ 
ing  a  while  he  says,  “  The  effect  of  the  present 
system  of  employing  laborers  has  been  dreadful ; 
it  has  totally  demoralized  the  lower  orders:  it 
has  made  them  poachers,  thieves,  and  robbers.’’ 
What,  the  system  has !  The  system  has  made 
them  poachers,  thieves,  and  robbers !  Why,  I 
thought  people  formed  their  own  characters. 
Now  just  look  at  this  absurdity.  Here  is  this  par¬ 
son  believing  that  man  forms  his  own  charac¬ 
ter,  and,  at  the  same  time,  telling  the  House  of 
Commons  that  the  characters  of  the  laboring 
classes  were  formed,  not  by  themselves,  but  by 
the  particular  system  under  which  they  were 
employed  ;  that  the  system  had  made  them  into 
thieves,  poachers,  and  robbers.  Can  anything  be 
plainer  than  this?  Was  absurdity  ever  more  glar¬ 
ing  or  palpable  ? 

Besides  this,  here  is  the  “collective  wisdom  of 
the  nation”  receiving  evidence  that  their  mea¬ 
sures  have  made  people  into  poachers,  thieves, 
and  robbers,  and  the  next  moment  they  go  to  work 
as  coolly  as  possible,  and  enact  severe  laws  for 


their  punishment;  and  while  this  is  going  on,  the 
parson  is  busy  in  his  pulpit  telling  the  people  that 
God  has  provided  a  heaven  and  a  hell  for  the 
good  and  the  bad ;  that  the  bad  will  go  to  the 
latter  place,  and  there  endure  everlasting  tor¬ 
ments  for  their  wickedness.  And  what  is  best  of 
all,  if  we  should  venture  to  express  our  doubts  as 
to  the  justice  or  consistency  of  such  severe  pun¬ 
ishment,  especially  when  we  considered  that  the 
“system  had  made  the  working  classes  into  poach¬ 
ers,  thieves,  and  robbers,”  as  the  parson  told  the 
House  of  Commons  ;  O  !  we  are  infidels,  deists, 
and  atheists;  we  are  all  that  is  bad!  we  are  quite 
ignorant  and  visionary.  Yes,  I  dare  say  we  are; 
and  it  is  very  well  we  are  nothing  worse;  for  if 
we  are  to  judge  of  people  by  their  thoughts  and 
actions,  I  should  say  that  the  parties  who  can  ex¬ 
hibit  such  rare  signs  of  wisdom  as  these,  cannot 
be  very  far  inferior  to  Solomon  himself.  Now  I 
merely  mention  these  instances  of  absurdity  to 
show  that  even  our  opponents  admit,  on  some  oc¬ 
casions,  the  truth  of  our  principles,  and  that  they 
actually  act  upon  them.  In  the  case  of  training 
up  their  children  we  see  them  acting  exactly  in 
accordance  with  the  principle  that  man  does  not 
form  his  own  character.  And  as  to  the  parson 
before  the  House  of  Commons*  he  says  outright 
that  it  was  the  system  that  formed  the  charac¬ 
ters  of  the  labouring  classes,  and  not  themselves; 
which  is  precisely  our  doctrine.  So  that,  besides 
our  own  arguments  in  the  matter,  even  our  oppo¬ 
nents  furnish  us  with  arguments  in  proof  of  our 
doctrines. 

But  some  people  will  exclaim,  “If  the  charac¬ 
ter  of  man  is  formed  for  him,  and  not  by  him, 
would  you  let  people  go  unpunished  when  they 
do  that  which  is  wrong?”  Now,  in  the  first 
place,  it  is  unjust  to  punish  them,  because  their 
characters  were  given  to  them  independent  of 
themselves;  but  as  long  as  this  irrational  system 
continue,  some  means  must  be  used  to  deter  them 
from  the  commission  of  crime,  and  although  pun¬ 
ishments  are  resorted  to  for  this  purpose,  they  by 
no  means  have  the  desired  effect.  People  still 
do  wrong.  They  still  rob  and  murder,  in  spite 
of  all  their  punishments,  either  in  this  world  or 
the  world  to  come.  Let  the  advocates  of  punish¬ 
ments  remember  this.  But  in  the  second  place, 
(and  let  our  opponents  take  notice  of  thisr)  when 
we  have  the  power  to  make  people  either  good 
characters  or  bad  characters,  either  virtuous  or 
vicious,  would  it  not  be  a  thousand  times  more 
wise  and  more  just  to  make  them  into  the  former 
rather  than  the  latter?  Would  it  not  be  better 
to  make  them  all  wise,  virtuous,  and  happy,  than 
ignorant,  vicious,  and  miserable  ?  Let  oui  eppo 
nents  give  us  an  answer  to  this.  Let  them  tell 
us  whether  it  be  wise  and  just  to  make  people  in¬ 
to  bad  characters,  and  then  punish  them  for  be¬ 
ing  so?  Let  them  point  out  to  us  the  wisdom 
and  justice  of  this.  Let  them  show  us  the  human¬ 
ity  of.  everlastingly  torturing  their  fellow-crea¬ 
tures,  when  the  whole  might  be  avoided  by  wise 
and  rational  arrangements.  And  the  next  time 
Mr.  Stowell  lectures  against  what  he  calls  Infi¬ 
delity,  let  him  tell  us  whether  these  are  the 
blessed  effects  of  the  Christian  religion ;  whether 
these  are  specimens  of  its  benign  influence  ;  its 
mercy,  its  charity,  its  forbearance,  and  its  bene¬ 
volence  ? 

When  we  think  of  the  miseries  the  human  race 
have  to  suffer,  owing  to  these  irrational  arrange¬ 
ments,  how  limited  does  the  intelligence  of  man 
yet  appear!  And  how  ridiculous  are  all  his  pre- 


8 


tensions  to  knowledge,  while  groaning  under 
these  vast  and  monstrous  evils. 

I  have  now ,  I  thing,  fully  proved  that  man  does 
not  form  his  own  character;  that  it  is  altogether 
formed  for  him;  and  therefore  he  is  not  a  responsi¬ 
ble  being;  that  to  blame  him,  to  praise  him,  to 
reward  him,  or  to  punish  him,  whatever  his  char¬ 
acter  may  be,  is  altogether  absurd  and  unjust. 
Upon  the  opposite  of  this  principle  society  is 
now  built,  and,  as  I  said  before,  this  error,  in  con¬ 
nection  with  a  system  of  individual  or  private 
property,  is  the  sole  and  entire  cause  of  all  the 
evils  which  now  afflict  the  human  family.  1 
have  said  that  these  evils  can  be  as  clearly  trac¬ 
ed  to  this  cause,  as  the  branches  of  a  tree  can 
be  traced  to  its  root,  and  I  shall  now  proceed  to 
prove  it. 

The  greatest  and  most  prolific  of  all  our  evils 
is  that  of  poverty,  or  the  want  of  the  necessaries 
of  life.  Now,  this  is  as  clearly  the  product  of  in¬ 
dividual  property,  as  smoke  is  a  product  of  fire. 
Individual  property  engenders  the  disposition  to 
grasp  or  accumulate,  and  it  is  owing  to  this  that 
so  many  are  in  poverty  and  rags.  Some  possess 
these  qualifications  in  a  higher  degree  than  oth¬ 
ers,  and  some  have  better  opportunities  than  oth¬ 
ers,  and  hence  it  is  that  some  are  immensely  rich 
while  tens  of  thousands  are  starving.  And  ob¬ 
serve,  it  is  not  owing  to  a  scarcity  of  provisions 
in  the  country  ;  it  is  not  owing  to  this  that  peo¬ 
ple  are  starving.  On  the  contrary,  it  is  owing, 
as  the  collective  wisdom  of  the  nation  have  more 
than  once  declared,  to  a  superabundance  of  these. 
What !  a  superabundance  of  the  necessaries  of 
life  in  the  country,  and  people  starving;  Yes; 
but,  then,  those  who  are  starving  cannot  get 
them.  What !  cannot  get  them  I  what  for?  Why, 
their  humane  and  charitable  fellow-Christians 
have  them  locked  up  in  vast  warehouses,  and 
they  thus  withhold  them  from  them.  And  is  this 
Christianity  ?  Is  this  an  evidence  of  its  benign 
influence?  Is  this  loving  their  neighbors  as  them¬ 
selves?  Is  this  abounding  in  love  and  charity 
one  towards  another  ?  But  we  blame  them  not 
for  it ;  the  system  is  the  cause  of  it  and  not  them¬ 
selves. 

How  different  would  everything  be  in  a 
Community !  All  would  be  rich  alike ;  no 
private  or  individual  property  ;  what  belong¬ 
ed  to  one  man  would  belong  to  the  whole, 
and  what  belonged  to  the  whole  would  be¬ 
long  to  each.  The  more  wealth  we  pos¬ 
sessed  the  better  would  each  of  us  be  off,  which 
is  the  very  reverse  under  the  present  arrange¬ 
ment.  People  are  starving  because  we  possess  a 
superabundance  of  wealth.  They  have  worked 
so  much  that  they  have  produced  more  food  and 
clothing  than  we  require,  and  they  cannot  get 
these  because  they  cannot  get  work,  and  they 
cannot  get  woik  because  they  have  already  work¬ 
ed  too  much.  Now,  who  can  help  admiring  an 
arrangement  so  evidently  sensible  ;  so  abounding 
in  marks  of  intelligence  and  wisdom,  and  at  the 
same  time  so  beautiful  and  harmonious!  We 
must  not  find  fault  with  it,  or  we  are  infidels  and 
Atheists.  Such  is  the  wisdom  of  the  age. 

In  a  community  all  would  be  different ;  being 
all  equal,  we  should  work  aboul  four  hours 
a  day  and  no  longer,  which  would  be  quite  suf¬ 
ficient  to  supply  us  all  with  an  abundance  of 
every  necessary  and  comfort  of  life.  And  instead 
of  living  in  the  filthy,  confined,  and  unwholesome 
towns  in  which  we  now  are,  we  should  have  the 
most  healthy  situations  the  country  could  afford. 
Only  look  at  the  filthy  hbles  that  human  beings 


now  live  in  ;  see  them  creeping  under  ground, 
and  there  eating  and  sleeping  in  the  most  confin¬ 
ed  and  unhealthy  atmosphere ;  see  some  of  them 
without  beds  and  without  food,  and  covered  with 
miserable  rags  ;  see  them  enduring  all  the  mise¬ 
ries  and  sufferings  that  hunger  and  want  occa¬ 
sion,  and  then  say  who  is  the  Christian  or  the  In¬ 
fidel  ;  he  who  would  continue  such  things  or  he 
who  would  put  an  end  to  them  ? 

Poverty,  then,  or  a  want  of  the  necessaries  o{ 
life,  clearly  proceeds  from  individual  property, 
and  no  other  cause.  And  as  poverty  is  the  cause 
of  an  unlimited  amount  of  vice  and  crime,  it  fol¬ 
lows,  that  by  removing  it  from  the  world  the 
whole  of  its  mighty  evils  will  also  be  removed. 
Now,  as  to  theft,  and  murder,  and  suicide,  and 
prostitution,  they  so  evidently  proceed  from  indi¬ 
vidual  property  and  responsibility,  that  I  haidly 
need  show  it.  No  man  can  thieve  in  a  Commu¬ 
nity, — all  would  be  his  own  ;  and,  therefore,  to 
thieve  would  be  ridiculous;  it  would  be  a  robbe¬ 
ry  committed  upon  himself;  and  even  that  is  an 
absurdity.  And  as  to  murder,  the  very  idea  is 
absurd.  How  can  a  man  murder,  if  he  believe  in 
irresponsibility  ?  If  a  man  be  offended  by  another, 
he  would  have  no  anger  or  malice  towards  him  for 
it;  he  would  freely  forgive  him  :  he  would  know* 
that  his  character  had  been  formed  for  him,  and 
not  by  him;  and,  therefore,  to  injure  him  would 
be  both  absurd  and  unjust.  And  as  to  suicides,  if 
we  could  suppose  that  in  a  Community  there 
could  be  any  reverses  of  fortune,  by  one  man  rob¬ 
bing  another;  if  we  could  suppose  people  would 
become  bankrupts  and  such  like;  if  we  could 
suppose  there  would  be  horrible  workhouses, 
where  husbands  would  be  separated  from  their 
wives,  and  wives  from  husbands,  and  children 
from  parents;  if  we  could  suppose  these  and  ma¬ 
ny  other  things,  then  we  might  imagine  the  pos¬ 
sibility  of  suicide,  but  not  until  then.  And  as  to 
prostitution,  every  body  knows  that  poverty  is 
the  cause  of  that,  and  therefore  that  is  at  once 
put  an  end  to. 

Now,  when  we  think  of  the  ministers  of  the 
gospel,  and  know  that  their  sole  business  is  to 
put  an  end  to  vice,  and  crime,  and  wickedness 
of  all  kinds,  what  are  we  to  think  of  them  when 
we  see  them  going  on  as  they  are  ?  Instead  of 
putting  an  end  to  the  causes  which  produce  these, 
they  are  actually  supporting  those  causes  with 
all  their  might.  They  are  supporting  the  very 
things  they  ought  to  destroy.  What  are  we  to 
think  of  such  men  ?  Can  we  believe  them  to  be 
sincere?  If  they  desire  to  put  an  end  to  vice  and 
crime,  why  do  they  not  remove  the  causes  which 
produce  them  ?  These  causes  are  clear  before 
their  eyes ;  they  cannot  plead  ignorance  of  them; 
why,  then,  do  they  .pot  remove  them  ?  Preaching 
and  praying  are  of  no  use,  at  least  they  are  not 
adequate  to  the  task.  They  have  preached  and 
prayed  for  nearly  2000  years,  and  mankind  are 
more  vicious  now  than  ever  they  were.  And 
surely  2000  years  are  long  enough  to  try  an  expe¬ 
riment.  That  experiment  is  an  evident  failure 
and  the  unbounded  prevalence  of  vice  is  a  proof 
of  it.  And  how  should  it  be  otherwise?  Nature 
is  uniform  in  all  her  operations;  where  certain 
causes  exist,  certain  effects  will  always  exist;  and 
therefore,  if  we  want  to  remove  vice  and  wick¬ 
edness  from  the  world,  we  must  first  of  all  re¬ 
move  the  causes  which  produce  them.  But  the 
ministers  of  the  gospel,  far  otherwise  enlightened, 
go  in  the  very  face  of  nature,  and  support  these 
causes.  And  while  they  do  this,  they  imagine 
they  can  frighten  people  from  vice  and  wicked 


9 


ness,  by  telling  them  that  God  will  punish  them 
eternally  after  they  are  dead.  Now,  that  this  is 
silly  ana  stupid  in  the  extreme,  we  have  the  most 
decided  proofs.  The  first  is,  the  absurdity  of  sup¬ 
posing  that  effects  can  be  removed  withopt  the 
causes ;  and  the  next  is,  that  notwithstanding  all 
their  efforts  to  frighten  people  into  morality,  they 
are  more  immoral  than  ever. 

The  only  way,  then,  to  remove  vice  and  wick¬ 
edness  from  the  world,  is  to  remove  the  causes 
which  produce  ihem,  and  this  can  only  be  done 
by  the  means  of  Communities.  Let,  then,  the 
ministers  of  the  gospel  preach  this  to  the  people; 
let  them  apply  their  churches  and  chapels  to  this 
purpose,  instead  of  the  useless  purposes  to  which 
they  are  now  applied ;  let  them  teach  the  people 
a  knowledge  of  their  own  nature,  instead  of  a 
knowledge  of  things  altogether  imaginary ;  let 
them  explain  to  them  the  formation  of  the  human 
character;  let  them  show  them  that  the  character 
of  every  man  is  formed  for  him, and  not  by  him, and 
therefore,  all  men  ought  to  “abound  in  love  and 
charity  one  towards  another;”  let  them  tell  their 
congregations  that  the  reason  this  precept  of  Je¬ 
sus  Christ  has  never  yet  been  practised,  is  be¬ 
cause  they  have  hitherto  believed  that  man  form¬ 
ed  his  own  character,  which  is  a  decided  and 
palpable  error;  let  them  describe  to  them  the  fa¬ 
tal  effects  of  this  error;  let  them  tell  them  that  it 
alone  is  the  source  of  all  the  anger,  all  the  ha¬ 
tred,  all  the  malice,  all  the  revenge,  and  all  the 
ill  feeling  and  uncharitableness  of  every  kind  that 
have  ever  existed  between  man  and  man,  and 
the  whole  of  those  would  be  at  once  annihilated 
by  the  explosion  of  this  error  alone ;  let  them 
teach  the  people  these  things,  and  they  would  do 
more  in  one  year,  in  putting  a  stop  to  vice  and 
wickedness,  than  they  have  done  in  2000  years  of 
preaching  and  praying. 

What  use  is  it  in  giving  people  commands  when 
they  cannot  obey  them  ?  What  use  is  it  m  pour¬ 
ing  out  precept  after  precept,  when  people  can¬ 
not  practise  them  ?  And  who  can  practise  the 
precepts  of  Jesus  Christ  under  the  present  sys¬ 
tem?  Can  any  of  those  who  call  themselves 
Christians  do  it?  Do  any  of  them  do  it  ?  Not  a 
soul  of  them.  Then,  is  this  not  a  proof  that  the 
system  is  bad  ?  If  men  were  to  practise  these 
precepts,  the  whole  scene  would  be  changed  ;  no' 
anger,  or  malice,  or  hatred,  or  revenge,  or  theft, 
or  murder,  or  beggary,  or  want,  would  ever  be 
heard  of  But  people  cannot  practise  these  pre¬ 
cepts  under  the  present  system.  The  Christians 
themselves  acknowledge  it.  And  how7  is  it  likely? 
Man  is  endowed  with  a  principle  called  self-pre¬ 
servation,  and  he  is  compelled  to  act  under  its 
influence.  It  is  that  principle  which  preserves 
his  existence,  and  if  he  did  not  possess  it  his  ex¬ 
istence  would  cease.  Let  not,  then,  the  Chris¬ 
tians  tell  us  that  it  springs  from  his  depravity.  In 
its  operations  it  compels  man  to  seek  that  which 
is  beneficial  to  him,  and  avoid  that  which  is  hurt¬ 
ful.  All  men,  therefore,  are  striving  to  benefit 
themselves.  Now,  the  present  arrangement  of 
society  is  such,  that  while  one  man  is  benefiting 
himself  he  is  injuring  another ;  and  this  is  owing 
to  an  opposition  of  interests,  or  individual  proper¬ 
ty.  If,  therefore,  we  could  arrange  society  so 
that  the  interest  of  one  man  would  be  the  inter¬ 
est  of  the  whole,  the  thing  would  be  accomplish¬ 
ed  at  once ;  for,  while  one  man,  under  the  influ¬ 
ence  of  this  same  principle  of  self-preservation, 
was  benefiting  himself,  he  would  at  the  same 
time  be  benefiting  the  whole,  and  thus  all  would 
be  peace  and  harmony.  Now,  it  fortunately  hap¬ 


pens  that  we  can  arrange  society  in  this  way* 
We  can  establish  communities  all  over  the  coun¬ 
try,  such  as  proposed  by  Robert  Owen,  contain¬ 
ing  about  2000  people  each,  or  more  if  conveni¬ 
ent.  In  these  Communities  every  man  would  be 
equal,  and  there  would  be  no  individual  property, 
or  no  clashing  of  interest.  Every  man,  therefore, 
in  benefiting  himself,  would  benefit  the  whole, 
and  thus  would  there  be  effected  a  greater  amount 
of  good  for  the  human  race  than  ever  was  effect¬ 
ed  by  all  the  warriors,  and  heroes,  and  conquer¬ 
ors,  and  patriots  that  ever  lived. 

How  can  a  man  love  his  neighbour  as  himself* 
when  that  neighbor  is  swallowing  up  ail  his  cus¬ 
tom  ?  And  how  can  one  shopkeeper  love  another* 
when  he  sees  him  resorting  to  all  sorts  of  schemes 
to  take  away  his  trade  ?  How  can  a  workman 
love  his  employer,  when  he  sees  him  reducing 
his  wages!  Or,  how  can  the  employer  love  his 
workman,  when  he  sees  him  striving  to  prevent 
him  ?  How  can  a  tenant  love  his  landlord,  when 
he  sees  him  selling  off  his  goods  for  rent,  and  thus 
casting  him  into  the  streets  to  starve?  How  can  a 
debtor  love  his  creditor,  when  he  sends  him  off 
to  gaol  for  a  debt  he  cannot  pay  ?  How  can  there 
be  any  love  at  all  under  the  present  system  ? 
Tradesmen  of  All  kinds  have  to  practise  all  man¬ 
ner  of  deception  and  fraud ;  they  have  to  lie,  and 
cheat,  and  deceive,  or  they  cannot  carry  on.  They 
affect  friendship  for  each  other,  merely  as  a  cloak 
for  their  fraud  and  deception. 

And,  as  to  “  doing  unto  others  as  you  would 
wish  others  to  do  unto  you,”  there  is  nothing  in 
the  whole  world  even  approaching  to  it.  The 
system  itself  is  a  burlesque  upon  the  precept ;  a 
complete  mockery.  Its  very  existence  would 
cease,  were  the  precept  practised.  Not  an  offi¬ 
cer  or  functionary  of  any  description  could  act* 
Judges,  jurors,  magistrates,  lawyers,  witnesses* 
attorneys,  constables,  policemen,  and  fifty  others, 
would  all  be  at  a  stand  still ;  not  one  of  them 
could  act.  Their  duties  would  be  wholly  at  an 
end,  and  the  system  would  be  blown  to  atoms. 
And  as  to  tradesmen,  and  all  other  description 
of  people,  they  also  would  be  equally  fast.  Now 
is  this  very  circumstance  not  sufficient  to  show 
the  beauty  of  the  present  system  ?  How  har¬ 
moniously  it  works  with  the  precepts  of  Jesus 
Christ ! 

Only  think  of  a  hundred  and  thirty  thousand 
men,  called  soldiers,  being  spread  all  over  the 
country7;  and  just  think  What  they  are  for.  Christ 
commands  them  to  love  their  neighbors  as  them¬ 
selves.  And  what  does  the  system  do  ?  Why, 
slaughter  them.  They  are  hired  and  kept  by 
their  fellow-christians,  for  the  express  purpose  of 
slaying  those  whom  Christ  says  they  ought  to  love 
as  themselves.  Now,  can  we  have  a  finer  speck 
men  than  this,  of  the  beauty  and  harmony  of  the 
present  arrangement  ?  Can  we  have  more  evi¬ 
dent  marks  of  profound  wisdom  and  solid  sense? 
But  we  are  infidels  if  we  find  fault  with  it ;  we 
must,  therefore,  be  very  cautious. 

If  any  man  want  to  witness  absurdity  altogeth¬ 
er  incomprehensible,  let  him  follow  the  soldiers 
to  church  on  a  Sunday.  Let  him  enter  the  church, 
and  deposit  himself  in  a  pew  (if  his  fellow-chris* 
tian  will  allow  him,)  where  he  can  have  a  view 
of  both  parson  and  soldiers.  Let  him  listen  a 
while,  until  the  parson  come  to,  “Love  thy  neigh¬ 
bor  as  thyself ;  do  unto  all  men  as  you  would 
they  should  do  unto  you  ;”  and  then  let  him  look 
at  the  soldiers  full  in  the  face.  What  is  he  to 
think  ?  Here  is  the  parson  telling  them  to  love 
their  neighbors  as  themselves,  while  both  parson 


io 


arid  congregation  have  them  hired  for  the  express 
purpose  of  slaying  people,  What  is  any  man  to 
think  of  such  an  exhibition?  Why,  that  the  con¬ 
cern  altogether  is  truly  abominable.  Another  dis¬ 
play  of  absurdity  is  exhibited  by  Christians  pro¬ 
fessing  to  forgive  men  their  tresspasses,  while 
they  practise  the  very  reverse.  The  parson  rhymes 
over  every  Sunday,  “Forgive  us  our  trespasses 
as  we  forgive  them  that  trespass  against  us,”  and 
so  on.  Mo  vs  can  anything  be  more  abominable? 
Calling  upon  the  Deity  to  forgive  them  their  tres- 
asses,  because  they  have  iorgiven  those  who 
ave  trespassed  against  them,  which  is  one  of  the 
greatest  falsehoods  that  ever  was  uttered,  i'hey 
talk  about  the  Deity  being  omnipresent  and  om¬ 
niscient.  Why,  if  this  be  the  case,  how  could 
they  ever  muster  up  assurance  enough  to  talk 
this  way  in  his  presence  ?  If  he  posess  these  at¬ 
tributes,  he  must  know  that  they  are  telling  him 
that  which  is  the  very  opposite  to  truth :  he  must 
know  that  they  do  not  forgive  men  their  trespass¬ 
es,  but  that  they  punish  and  persecute  them  in 
all  manner  of  ways ;  and,  therefore,  to  ask  his 
forgiveness,  in  consequence  of  them  forgiving 
others,  is  one  Of  the  most  abominable  abomina¬ 
tions  that  man  can  conceive.  Talk  about  blas¬ 
phemy  !  Why  this  is  fifty  thousand  times  worse. 
There  is  no  word  in  the  dictionary  suitable  for  it. 
It  positively  excels  all.  What!  forgive  men  their 
trespasses,  and  thousands  upon  thousands  of  peo¬ 
ple  suffering  all  manner  of  punishments?  Thous¬ 
ands  suffering  in  gaols,  for  debts  they  are  unable 
to  pay  !  Millions  suffering  minor  punishments  of 
all  sorts  !  and  telling  the  Deity  that  you  forgive 
.men  their  trespasses  !  Nothing  can  equal  it.  It  is 
a  total  eclipse  of  all. 

Christ  says  distinctly  in  his  sermon  on  the  mount 
that  “Unless  ye  forgive  men  their  trespasses,  nei¬ 
ther  will  your  heavenly  Father  forgive  you.” 
Now  what  in  the  name  of  all  that  is  merciful,  is 
to  become  of  all  the  Christians?  Not  one  of  them 
will  forgive  men  their  trespasses.  To  the  infer¬ 
nal  regions  the  whole  of  them  are  doomed ;  at 
least  if  this  be  true,  and  they  say  it  is.  What  an 
awful  idea !  They  will  not  only  not  forgive  men 
their  trespasses,  but  they  actually  abuse  us  if  we 
do  it.  We  are  teaching  a  doctrine  that  will  lead 
all  men  to  forgive  each  other  their  trespasses  ; 
that  will  make  them  all  kind  and  charitable,  one 
towards  another;  and  for  doing  this  they  call  us 
infidels,  atheists,  deists,  and  ail  the  bad  names 
they  can  think  of.  But  we  do  not  blame  them 
for  it;  we  know  that  their  characters  have  been 
formed  for  them,  and  not  by  them;  and,  therefore 
we  freely  forgive  them  all  their  trespasses.  But 
is  it  not  strange  and  unaccountable  that,  while 
we  practise  this  precept  of  Jesus  Christ,  and  they 
do  not,  they  call  us  infidels,  and  themselves  Chris¬ 
tians,  and  that  we  will  go  to  hell,  and  that  they 
will  go  to  heaven  ?  Can  anything  be  more  my¬ 
sterious  ?  But  such  is  their  rationality. 

We  are  preaching  to  the  world  the  formation 
of  the  human  character;  w’e  are  telling  all  men 
that  it  is  unjust  and  absurd  to  make  man  resposi- 
ble  for  either  his  thoughts,  feelings,  or  actions  ; 
that  these  exist  in  every  individual  independent 


of  himself;  that  his  character  is  altogether  formed 
for  him,  and  not  by  him  ;  and  that,  therefore,  we 
can  never  be  angry  with  each  other,  but  must  al¬ 
ways  forgive  one  another  our  trespasses,  which 
is  precisely  the  precept  of  Jesus  Christ ;  only  we 
give  reasons  for  it,  and  he  does  not;  and  for  doing 
this  we  are  infidels  and  bad  men,  and  will  be 
sure  to  go  to  hell.  And  what  makes  the  thing 
fifty  times  worse,  while  those  who  do  not  prac¬ 
tise  this  precept,  although  they  profess  to  believe 
it,  are  Christians  and  good  men,  and  will  be  sure 
to  go  to  heaven.  Such  is  the  power  of  error  and 
delusion. 

I  recollect  speaking  to  a  Christian  on  this  par¬ 
ticular  point,  of  forgiving  men  their  trespasses.  I 
asked  him  how  they  could  expect  to  go  to  heaven 
as  long  as  they  punished  people  as  they  did  ;  for, 
said  I,  Christ  says,  “Unless  you  forgive  men  their 
trespasses,  neither  will  your  heavenly  Father  for¬ 
give  your  trespasses.”  He  replied,  ‘  We  do  for¬ 
give  men  their  trespasses.”  “  What,”  said  I, 
“sending  men  to  prison  for  paltry  debts;  trans¬ 
porting  them,  and  punishing  them  in  all  manner 
of  ways ;  is  tfyis  forgiving  men  their  trespasses?” 
“Oh,”  says  tie,  “but  we  forgive  them  in  our 
hearts.”  “Oh,  indeed,”  I  replied,  “  then,  I  sup¬ 
pose,  if  God  sends  you  to  hell,  and  if  he  only  for¬ 
give  you  in  his  heart,  you  will  be  quite  satisfi¬ 
ed.”  His  answer  came  from  his  looks  instead  of 
his  mouth. 

Such  is  a  specimen  of  the  masses  of  error  and 
absurdity  which  yet  fill  the  minds  of  millions  of 
men;  and  such  are  the  sources  of  all  the  miseries 
the  human  race  are  suffering.  A  change,  how¬ 
ever,  is  at  hand.  The  eyes  of  the  people  are 
opening;  error  and  delusion  are  taking  flight. 
The  veil  is  being  withdrawn,  and  there  is  no 
power  on  earth  adequate  to  replace  it. 

I  have  now,  I  think,  accomplished  my  task.  I 
have  exposed  the  errors  and  evils  of  the  present 
arrangement  of  society;  I  have  traced  the  vice 
and  crime  to  the  source  from  whence  they  spring; 
I  have  shown  that  that  source  is  not  in  the  de¬ 
pravity  of  man,  as  the  priesthood  allege,  but  in  the 
ignorant  and  irrational  arrangements  around  him; 
I  have  shown  that  as  long  as  these  arrangements 
last,  so  long  will  man  be  ignorant,  vicious,  and 
miserable;  and  that  as  soon  as  these  arrange¬ 
ments  shall  cease,  and  Communities  be  establish¬ 
ed  upon  ihe  plan  proposed  by  Robert  Owen,  so 
soon  will  man  be  transformed  into  a  wise,  virtu¬ 
ous,  and  happy  being. 

In  conclusion,  I  beg  to  call  upon  the  Clergy  of 
all  Denominations ;  I  respectfully  demand  that 
they  either  clear  up  all  these  masses  of  errors  and 
contradictions,  or  at  once  abandon  them  for  ever. 
It  is  their  duty  to  remove  error  wherever  they 
see  it;  and  if  I  am  in  error,  I  beg  they  will  show 
it ;  and  if  l  am  not  in  error,  I  demand  that  they 
will  acknowledge  it,  and  give  up  their  present 
proceedings.  One  or  the  other  of  these  they  are 
bound  to  do,  and  which  ever  it  may  be  I  *hall 
feel  contented.  Truth  only  can  prevail  and  ifour 
opinions  are  not  truth,  the  sooner  we  are  without 
them  the  better. 


